By Liezelle Soriano
MANILA — House Appropriations Committee Chairman and Ako Bicol Partylist Representative Elizaldy Co on Monday committed to source out additional funds for the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) amid the spate of system breaches among government agencies.
Co added that he will exhaust all means and will collaborate with the Senate to look for more sources of funds in an effort to bolster the country’s cybersecurity arsenal through the DICT.
“We recognize the dire need of the DICT for resources to fight cybercrime and ransomware attacks,” Co said.
Amid the continuing ransomware attacks, the lawmaker from Bicol region added that he would help the DICT by conveying the urgent funding needed for cybersecurity with the Department of Budget and Management.
“For the continuing ransomware attacks, we convey to the Department of Budget and Management the urgent need for additional funds for the DICT and for government agencies being attacked and vulnerable to cyberattack,” the lawmaker added.
Co said that additional resources can come from the Unprogrammed Funds of the 2023 national budget.
“Maybe some of the vulnerable agencies’ savings can be authorized for augmentation spending on IT security and ransomware countermeasures,” he added.
DICT confirmed on Monday (16 Oct 2023) that the House of Representatives website has been compromised, defaced, and hacked.
The agency already launched a thorough investigation into the latest hacking incident that happened last Sunday (15 Oct 2023).
The hackers placed a meme on the website with the caption “You’ve been hacked.”
“The HOR immediately put the website offline to prevent further unauthorized access and reported the incident to the DICT,” the agency said. (ai/mnm)