MANILA, Philippines?(UPDATE) The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) would investigate the alleged intrusion into its information technology system by supposed hackers from China, DFA spokesman Ed Malaya said Monday.
Canadian researchers said websites of foreign ministries of various countries were hacked.
"DFA takes seriously reports such as this, and will carefully look into its details, including the methodologies used to arrive at their observation," Malaya said.
"As part of due diligence, we will undertake all measures to maintain and ensure the integrity our IT systems," he added.
Canadian researchers from the Information Warfare Monitor reported that the systems of the DFA were among those targeted by hackers.
The Philippines is also one of the 103 countries where classified documents from government and private organizations, including the computers of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles, were hacked into, the Ottawa-based think tank, which is composed of SecDev Group and University of Toronto?s Munk Center for International Studies.
The Canadian researchers detected attacks in more than 1,295 compromised computers from the ministries of foreign affairs, including the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said government has yet to determine what specific crime or what action should be taken with the reported hacking of the information technology system of the DFA.
Gonzalez said government needs to determine if indeed there has been hacking before moving identifying the supposed hackers.
?If it is true, that is very dangerous because it could affect our national security. There are plenty of crimes we can think about but we must first authenticate if there has been really hacking,? Gonzalez said.