DICT: Customs data breach contained

MANILA, Philippines — The data breach of the Bureau of Customs (BOC)’s systems has been contained and defense of the agency’s database is ongoing, according to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

“The hack has been contained. Efforts are still ongoing to defend BOC and ensure the damage does not spread to their systems,” DICT Undersecretary for cybersecurity, connectivity and upskilling Jeffrey Ian Dy told The STAR.

Dy said they have already identified user accounts that have been compromised by the data breach.

“Right now, our count is bearing 50,000 users’ PII (personally identifiable information) that has been compromised,” he noted.

The DICT earlier bared that the hack affected the help desk ticketing system and the data reporting and analytics, which involves information on customs brokers, importers and exporters that transact with the BOC.

The hackers have not gained access to or breached the BOC’s electronic-to-mobile system, Dy said.

Cybersecurity group Deep Web Konek reported the BOC data breach on April 8, saying that 4.5 gigabytes of BOC data were compromised by a cyberhack group that identified themselves as DeathNote Hackers PH, Philippine Hacking University and Excommunicado.

Deep Web Konek said the compromised data included the personal information of more than 2,200 employees and about 80,000 customers.