Amid global concerns over “cyberextortion,” Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Sunday directed the National Bureau of Investigation to help beef up the country’s internet defense systems against the so-called “WannaCry” malware.
Aguirre also instructed the Cybercrime Division of the Department of Justice to coordinate with the NBI to protect the government’s online system from computer hackers.
“Let us do what we can to monitor and step up our cybersecurity measures to prevent or at least minimize the adverse effects of ‘ransomware’ attacks on our system,” Aguirre said in a text message.
He issued the order amid the latest string of worldwide cyberattacks, which some computer security experts believe to be the biggest online extortion incident in history.
The NBI has yet to monitor any incident of ransomware attacks in the country.
Some 70 countries have fallen prey to these hackers.