PLDT unit urges banks to beef up data security

MANILA, Philippines – IP Converge Data Services Inc. (IPC), a unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), is urging financial institutions to safeguard their systems by deploying up-to-date security measures amid the $81 million money laundering scandal.

IPC president Rene Huergas said banks should check their current data security setup, stating that even the most secure institutions are not exempt from the alarming increase in crimes perpetrated online particularly Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

“This is a reality that has caused the loss of significant revenue for many businesses. The global recorded cost of cyber attacks is at $400-500 billion per year? roughly 50 percent of which is from DDoS attacks,” he said.

The local cloud services pioneer and information technology (IT) security specialist said the data from DDoS mitigation partner Nexusguard shows companies are most likely to lose more unless executives take stock of this as a serious issue at hand.

Huergas said some institutions may have inadequate system and network security layers to protect them from cyber attacks.

 “This poses an even greater danger to both the customer as well as the institution. As data and network security is a commodity in this day and age, now is the best time to recognize that the threats are real and can make businesses vulnerable and susceptible to attacks; banks and financial institutions being the most inclined to this kind of attack,” Huergas said.

 Just recently, several Iranian hackers have been indicted following a well-orchestrated cyber attack on US banks.

 The criminals hit the banks with DDoS attacks on an almost weekly basis, flooding their servers with illegitimate traffic that slowed websites down and caused millions in lost business.

 For his part, IPC director for Product Management and Marketing Niño Valmonte said perpetrators have been launching DDoS attacks to mask the other ways by which they compromise systems.

 “Financial institutions, especially those with online transactions (e-payments, online banking), must remain vigilant against these threats or they’ll easily lose their client’s trust and consequently, their business,” he said.

While DDoS attacks are considered the world’s most costly cyber crime, cyber attacks that involve malware, phishing, password attacks, MITM (man-in-the-middle), drive-by downloads, malvertising, and rogue software are also widespread.

In fact, it was found the Philippines’ vulnerability to cyber crimes has statistically doubled.

 A large percentage of computers in the country have been invaded by malware, the same intrusive software initially found to have allowed the illegal electronic transfer of funds in the Bangladesh case.

 This condition poses a real and imminent threat as records from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show around 22 million people utilize electronic banking services and channels and that the volume and value of e-money transactions keep growing over the years.

 The figure continues to increase each year as more and more people join the workforce and make use of a bank’s facilities. This translates to the overwhelming amount of data that is at risk.

 “Cyber attacks have been growing in size and becoming more and more complex. While they can’t be scrapped entirely, employing security features and updating them every once in a while will help ensure that disruptions to business processes are at a minimum,” Valmonte said.

 The BSP, Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee are conducting separate investigations on the $81 million bank heist wherein the money stolen from the Bangladesh Bank found its way to the country through the  Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).