PLDT and Smart’s Cyber Security Operations Group (CSOG) prevented 1.5 billion attempts to open malicious domains in January. The group also repelled more than 32 million cyber-attacks and attempts to breach PLDT and Smart’s digital infrastructure.
“As attackers get sophisticated, we are keeping a step ahead of them to strengthen our cyber defenses and address potential vulnerabilities,” said Angel Redoble, FVP and chief information security officer at PLDT and Smart.
In support of government efforts to curb the proliferation of text scams and other mobile phone-aided criminal activities like the mandated SIM card registration, PLDT and Smart also prevented more than 3 million fraudulent messages from reaching customers in January. To further protect the public from text scams, Smart also blocked more than 20,000 mobile numbers involved in phishing, SMShing, and Vishing activities in the first month of 2023.
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In January, the PLDT Group’s Child Protection Platform blocked more than 200,000 attempts to open uniform resource locators (URL) that host child sexual abuse or exploitation materials (CSAEM). The platform has blacklisted more than 600,000 domains linked to CSAEM from the PLDT Group’s network. This was achieved partly through its membership with the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation and Project Arachnid of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, as well as their close collaboration with like-minded non-profit organizations and government agencies.