Cyber attacks expose 85.9 million records in Q3

MANILA, Philippines — In just a span of three months, over 85.9 million records of Filipinos have been exposed due to numerous data breach incidents, including those targeting government agencies, a new report released by a cybersecurity firm found.

According to the Cyber Threat Landscape Report from Viettel Cyber Security (VCS), at least 83 breach incidents were reported in the Philippines in the third quarter of the year, up from 76 from the same period last year. This resulted in over 85.9 million records of Filipinos being exposed to malicious threat actors, the report said.

Based on the report, 47 incidents were reported in July, exposing about 60.2 million records. The remaining incidents were spread in August and September.

While these were lower than the figures during the second quarter, VCS said this does not necessarily signal a weaker threat of cybersecurity issues.

“Attackers focused on fewer but larger datasets and on selling direct network access, including privileged administrative, VPN (virtual private network) and Active Directory credentials. With 2026 year-to-date totals reaching 338 incidents and over 421 million breached records, the risk of systemic intrusion remains high,” it said.

In terms of distribution, VCS noted that government agencies remain the primary target of cyber threats. Other targeted sectors included the lending platforms, banks and investment firms, as well as consumer services. The report was released amid the reported data breach incidents involving at least 10 government agencies.

VCS did not identify the specific agencies and organizations targeted by the cybersecurity incidents, but one case involving an unidentified government agency exposed 103.2 gigabytes (GB) of data, including over 140,000 scanned passports and IDs.

These included overseas worker contract and deployment records, user accounts and financial, agency and legal case records. Another incident involving the transportation sector included 16 million breached records amounting to 7.7 GB.

It was unclear if that incident involved a government agency or a private organization, but VCS said it exposed “transport franchise and operator records and personal information from multiple systems and databases.”

There were also a series of data breach incidents involving Philippine online lending platforms that exposed around 32 million records.

Aside from the exposed records, VCS also reported at least nine million credentials – meaning usernames and passwords – were compromised during the third quarter of the year. Compromised credentials could enable a threat actor to log in the accounts of affected users.

Philippines ready for cyber attacks

Meanwhile, Malacañang assured the public that the government is prepared to address any cyber attack, after authorities confirmed that at least 10 state agencies had been hit by data breach incidents.

Palace press officer Claire Castro said previous online attacks against government websites were acted upon immediately. “The government is ready to respond to cyber attacks (like the) hacking of websites,” she said.

Castro said President Marcos is aware of the data leakages, which were reported days before the much-anticipated ASEAN Leaders’ Summit.

CICC: Leaked files ‘rehashed’ old data

Several datasets circulated online following a recent wave of alleged cyberattacks on Philippine government agencies appear to be “rehashed” or recycled files from previous breaches, the head of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) revealed on Thursday.

“We have already seen evidence that these datasets are data from past exploits,” CICC executive director Renato Paraiso said over dzBB yesterday. “Meaning, these are previous hacks on the government that are just being rehashed or recycled to make it look like they hacked our government.”

He added that the CICC is working closely with the National Bureau of Investigation to unmask the threat actors operating behind various online aliases including a group calling itself the “Three Musketeers,” which allegedly claimed responsibility for targeting the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Moody’s: Philippines most  exposed to AI shifts

The Philippines is potentially among the emerging markets most exposed to the effects of artificial intelligence because of its large information technology and business process outsourcing sector, according to Moody’s Ratings, adding that there is no clear evidence yet of either productivity gains or worker displacement.

“For emerging markets with significant levels of software or IT and business-process outsourcing exposures, artificial intelligence could both raise productivity and create displacement risks,” Moody’s said. “But even for India and the Philippines – the potentially most-exposed emerging market countries – there is no current clear illustration of either trend,” it added.

The debt watcher said the long-term impact would depend partly on whether emerging economies can secure enough computing capacity, digital infrastructure and skilled workers to capture AI-related gains. –  Rainier Allan Ronda, Keisha Ta-asan, Alexis Romero