DICT gains partial access to DOST’s compromised system

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has regained partial access to the network of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), which was recently targeted by hackers believed to be working within the country.

Information and Communications Technology Assistant Secretary Renato Paraiso, in a press briefing on Thursday, said their team has yet to turnover the system to the DOST as it was still working on recovering full control of the system to allow further probe of the hacking incident.

READ: Hackers gain access to sensitive DOST data

Paraiso previously said the DOST IT administrators and employees were blocked from accessing 2-terabyte worth of data including research plans, schematics and designs following the cyberattack, which was detected on April 3 at around 11 a.m.

For now, the DICT has isolated systems and devices that could have been affected by the cyberattack. The team also inspected the WiFi network as a cybersecurity measure.