PLDT and Smart have intensified their anti-cybercrime efforts and clamped down on illegal activities perpetrated over their text messaging or SMS and online platforms.
“The SIM Card Registration Law will help curb fraud and cybercrime as it will make it harder for criminals to buy SIMs anonymously. PLDT and Smart cyberwarriors are working 24/7 in blocking scams and fraudulent messages, as well as mobile accounts being used in criminal activities,” said Angel Redoble, Chief Information Security Officer at PLDT and Smart.
As at end-2022, the PLDT Group has blocked more than 17 billion attempts to open malicious domains after its Cyber Security Operations Group (CSOG) blacklisted 5.5 million domains used in phishing, spam, and hoax activities.
Smart also prevented 433 million SMShing messages from reaching customers. These messages often come with links to phishing sites that harvest customers’ personal data. Smart similarly blocked more than 400,000 mobile numbers involved in the illegal activities.
CSOG’s close watch also fended off 182 million cyber-attacks and data breach incidents. Its threat intelligence sources has enabled CSOG to amass 123 million indicators of compromise in its database that it also uses for cyber-attack correlation.
Smart also ramped up efforts to register all its subscribers. It has set up registration booths and touchpoints across the country to reach more customers. As of the second week of January, nearly 8 million subscribers of its prepaid, postpaid and corporate services have registered their SIMs.
Recognizing children as key stakeholders, PLDT and Smart is hard at work to end online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC). In 2022, the group foiled more than 1.3 billion attempts to access URLs that show child sexual abuse materials (CSAM). In December alone, the CSOG added more than half a million URLs hosting CSAMs to its blacklist.
The PLDT Group’s child protection platform is vital in its fight against OSAEC. The technology allows the Group to block online child abuse materials at the more difficult content level. Its membership to the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation and Project Arachnid of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection enabled it to quickly identify and cut access to URLs hosting CSAMs.
PLDT and Smart’s initiatives to bolster their cybersecurity infrastructure is grounded in their customer-centric goal to deliver meaningful connections and experiences for customers to live a fuller life.
