The Pangasinan Provincial Board has approved a resolution to create a cyber-response team office tasked to tackle cybercrimes at the provincial level.
This was a swift response after the official Facebook account of Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Manotoc was hacked. “Our managers have already complied with the necessary security requirements to retrieve the account and prevent this incident from happening again,” Gervy James Gumarit, head of the communications and media office of the provincial government, said. He noted that the page is still breached.
Meanwhile, Vice Governor Cecilia Araneta-Marcos said on Tuesday, February 7, that the Ilocos Norte provincial government has requested the establishment of an anti-cybercrime satellite office at the Camp Valentin S. Juan, Laoag City.
Moreover, the approval of the resolution is also a result of the increase in reported Internet crimes in the province. According to authorities, the majority of the cases reported include online scams, anti photo, and video voyeurism, computer-related identity theft, threat, system interference or hacking, unjust vexation, illegal access, robbery with intimidation, and ATM or credit card fraud.
