DICT to launch center vs scam websites

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will implement a multi-agency and multi-sector organization that will take down websites and mobile phone numbers engaged in cybercrime and scams.

DICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda, in an interview yesterday over dzMM Teleradyo, said the department will soon launch the Common Threat Monitoring Center that will undertake a tough takedown campaign on erring websites and phone numbers.

The proposed center, he said, will be composed of government law enforcement as well as technical personnel of the country’s telecom companies.

Aguda added that there will be 12 agencies making up the center who will all cooperate in finding and taking down erring websites and mobile phone subscribers.

“This is a community play,” Aguda said.

The center, he said, will have a dashboard that will allow it to monitor all websites being clicked open in the country’s cyberspace as well as mobile phone numbers sending out text messages.

Any erring website with fake news and any mobile phone number found to be sending out prohibited hyperlinks can be taken down on the center’s dashboard, Aguda said.

He said that the DICT sees this as the best and most effective way of finally clearing the country’s cyber and telecommunication space of garbage.