PLDT, Smart block over 5 million malicious texts

MANILA, Philippines — Over five million malicious text messages have been prevented from reaching customers last February by PLDT and Smart Communications.

On top of these, PLDT and Smart said their Cyber Security Operations Group (CSOG) also blocked more than 38,000 mobile numbers found to have been involved in fraudulent activities.

Efforts by the group to protect customers from phishing and other malicious online activities likewise continued as the CSOG stopped more than 1.4 billion attempts to open malicious domains in February.

PLDT said more than 200,000 of these were attempts to visit URLs and content related to online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

The PLDT Group’s pioneering child protection platform enables it to block child sexual abuse and exploitation materials (CSAEM) online.

PLDT and Smart’s memberships into the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s Project Arachnid have also expanded the capacity of the group’s organically developed CSAEM blocking tool.

PLDT said efforts were also increased to protect the group’s digital infrastructure.

A total of 83 million cyberattacks and attempts to breach its network in February were prevented.

“As we double efforts to register our mobile subscribers, we are also working 24/7 to stop malicious messages from passing through our network,” PLDT and Smart first vice president and chief security officer Angel Redoble said.

“We work closely with SMS aggregators and financial institutions to immediately prevent text scams from spreading to mobile users in the country,” he said.

PLDT said the group’s efforts to detect and block malicious messages, including SIMs and websites tied to fraudulent activities, are fundamental to a much broader program to elevate the quality of customer experience by protecting them from threats and cyberattacks.

PLDT encourages users who receive dubious or malicious text messages to take a screenshot and send it to [email protected].

It said other cybersecurity matters like phishing, vishing, and malicious domains can also be reported though the said channel.