The number of cyber security incidents monitored from January to September increased compared to the same period last year, a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) official said on Thursday.

In his message during the Philippines Critical Information Infrastructures Protection (CIIP) Summit in Paranaque on Thursday, Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said that "the DICT National Computer Emergency Response Team handled 2,207 cyber incidents" from January to September 2024.

"More than half of those incidents, 51 percent targeted government and emergency services. These are just incidents handled by the DICT and the DICT alone, just DICT, monitors approximately 2.1 million cyber incidents or potential cyber threats per day," he said.

"Approximately 30 percent are targeting the academe, state universities, colleges, and national universities, and private sector. And then a little bit of those, 10 percent or less, in the telecommunications sector," he added.

Dy noted that only 1,700 cyber security incidents were handled by the DICT National Computer Emergency Response Team in the same period of previous year.

" I think it's because of increasing geopolitical tensions. And a lot of activists from both sides are trying to go right on this geopolitical tension," he said.

"Plus, to be honest, the capability of the Cyber Security Bureau of the ICT to monitor has increased. So maybe we haven't seen the full picture yet," he added.

Dy emphasized that these figures do not include cyber attacks against non-reporting private organizations.

"These are only those that we detect and those that are reported to us. I think the numbers could be larger if there is already a mandatory reporting structure," he said.

He also explained that despite the increase in the recorded number of handled cyber security incidents, it is still small compared to other countries in the East Asian region.

"To be honest, 2,200 (plus) incidents is not big. If you look at other countries within the region. If you talk about the East Asian region, not only ASEAN, it's still small," he added. Robina Asido/DMS