Cyber crimes up during early days of quarantine: Diokno

MANILA – Cyber threats increased during the earlier days of the community quarantine but these have been addressed by financial institutions’ tough stance against online crimes.

In a virtual briefing Thursday, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said cyber crimes like phishing and sending out malicious e-mails and links to malicious websites “with the spin on coronavirus disease” increased.

Diokno said banks addressed these by launching targeted cybersecurity awareness campaigns to combat phishing and social engineering attacks.

He said banks also upped their surveillance monitoring by implementing tighter network controls like stringent firewall settings, end-point protection, and white-listing of websites or applications.

“Towards the end of the lockdown, phishing and malicious website (had) already tapered off, indicating effective countermeasures of the BSP-supervised institutions,” he said.

Phishing is done by getting an individual’s personal details, account numbers, and personal identification number (PIN), among others, through e-mail.

Amid the banks’ cybersecurity readiness, Diokno said criminals continue to attack the financial institutions’ cybersecurity defenses and controls.

“BSFIs (BSP-supervised institutions) should therefore continue to closely monitor and anticipate these changing attack tactics through defense in depth strategies and effective cyber response mechanisms,” he added.