PLDT unit to build Phl’s first facility vs Internet attacks

MANILA, Philippines - IP Converge Data Services Inc. (IPC), a unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), is set to launch the country’s first facility that would analyze Internet traffic to remove bogus and malicious data.

IPC director for product management and marketing Niño Valmonte said the first locally hosted data scrubbing center would be launched this year to protect local e-commerce websites from attacks generated both locally and from foreign shores.

The facility is being launched in partnership with leading global DDoS (distributed denial of service) Mitigation service provider Nexusguard based in Hong Kong. IPC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PLDT’s e-PLDT Inc.

“With the rising incidence of DDoS attacks and their increasing complexity and volume, having our very own scrubbing center augments our capabilities to protect local online businesses, and enables us to mitigate local attack traffic in-country as well,” Valmonte said.

Data scrubbing centers are centralized facilities where Internet traffic is analyzed and filtered to remove bogus and malicious data brought about by DDoS attacks.

Recognizing a growing need to protect Filipino organizations with web-based businesses from the looming threat of DDoS, Valmonte said IPC enacted this strategy to enhance the country’s defenses against what is considered to be the world’s most costly cyber crime.

Over 50 percent of cyber crimes in the world are DDoS attacks and the top 2 sources of attack traffic are the US and China.

 “This ensures customers that aside from being protected from attacks, the latency with regard to legitimate Internet traffic accessing their websites is minimized,” he said.

Nexusguard, a pioneer in DDoS attack mitigation, operates multiple scrubbing centers around the world. IPC’s Philippine scrubbing center will be connected to this global network.

The scrubbing center will be co-located in IPC’s own Internet data center facility and operated by experienced and highly skilled DDoS Mitigation professionals.

“Given IPC’s expertise and progressive expansion in the Philippines in terms of cloud service offerings, we’re confident that we’ve made the right choice to partner with them in this endeavor. Plus, the country’s strategic location in the Asian region makes it a logical choice in establishing a line of defense against the rising tide of DDoS attacks in the area and worldwide,” said Bill Barry, executive vice president of Nexusguard.

In the global arena, having this newest scrubbing center adds another layer of protection and mitigation for both local and overseas businesses. The addition of this Philippine-based center enlarges the scope of countering the escalating scale of DDoS attacks.