PLDT, Smart blocked 17B malicious links in 2022

PLDT Inc. and its wireless unit, Smart Communications Inc., foiled in the past year billions of malicious links found to be associated with fraudulent activities such as phishing as they stepped up their drive against cybercrimes.

In a statement on Friday, the Pangilinan-led companies said they blocked more than 17 billion attempts to access malicious domains in 2022.

The group’s cybersecurity operations group blacklisted 5.5 million domains used in phishing, spam and other hoax activities.

Some 433 million text messages containing phishing sites were also blocked, in addition to more than 400,000 mobile numbers found to be engaged in illegal activities.

In phishing, scammers trick unsuspecting victims into sharing their personal information like bank account details through suspicious links. With this sensitive information, hackers access the victims’ bank accounts and steal their money.

PLDT said its anticybercrime efforts were in line with the implementation of the SIM (subscriber identity module) card registration law.

“The SIM card registration law will help curb fraud and cybercrime as it will make it harder for criminals to buy SIMs anonymously,” PLDT and Smart chief information security officer Angel Redoble explained.

“To expand on the government’s effort, PLDT and Smart cyberwarriors are working 24/7 in blocking scams and fraudulent messages, as well as mobile accounts being used in criminal activities,” he added.

As of Jan. 12, around 8.9 million Smart subscribers already completed their SIM registration. It has a subscriber base of 67.99 million. INQ