Serious security breach as hacker takes over NDRRMC’s Facebook page

by Martin Sadongdong, Manila Bulletin

An official social media account of the government’s primary inter-agency council on disaster response has been hacked on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 11, raising questions as to the capability of the government to deter cyber attacks.

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The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) announced that its official Facebook page was hacked around 3 p.m.

“Necessary arrangements are in place to retrieve our account and investigate the matter. We uphold data privacy and security, alongside the welfare of the members of the NDRRMC,” it said in a press statement.

The hacking incident occured just as Tropical Depression “Maymay” was headed towards Luzon and threatened to pound provinces. The NDRRMC, which often posts warnings and updates on impending calamities, made its last Facebook post last October 4.

The NDRRMC apologized for “any inconvenience or confusion” that the incident might bring to the public and its stakeholders.

This was not the first time that the NDRRMC was targeted by hackers.

Ten months ago, the official Twitter account of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) — the implementing agency of the NDRRMC — had also been hacked.

The OCD’s verified Twitter account @civildefensePH posted at least five tweets about cryptocurrency and bitcoin on the Twitter pages of billionaire businessman Elon Musk and his aerospace company, SpaceX, on the midnight of Nov. 14, 2021.

The hacker also changed the OCD’s Twitter handle from “Office of Civil Defense” to “Elon Muskx,” as well as its profile picture to the photo that was the same as Musk’s Twitter profile.

It was not immediately clear whether or not the hacker that controlled the OCD Twitter page in 2021 was the same hacker that attacked the Facebook page of the NDRRMC since the Council offered very little details on the recent hacking incident.

LOOK! Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts singing ‘Beauty and the Beast’

by Robert Requintina

Beauty and the Beast (Walt Disney Facebook)

After the CBS series “Murder, She Wrote,” Hollywood star Angela Lansbury appeared in another memorable project in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991.

Angela was the voice of Mrs. Potts in the blockbuster animated feature flick, which until now, remains the first-ever movie nominated for Best Picture at the prestigious Oscar Awards.

Mrs. Potts is a supporting character in “Beauty and the Beast.” She is the castle’s head housekeeper who was transformed into an enchanted teapot once the Enchantress placed her curse.

Angela was the voice of Mrs. Potts in the original version, while Emma Thompson was in the live-action remake.

Angela died on Tuesday, Oct. 11, her children announced. She was 96.

“The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” said her family in a statement.

“In addition to her three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, she is survived by three grandchildren, Peter, Katherine and Ian, plus five great grandchildren and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury.

Angela was perhaps best known for playing dauntless mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher on “Murder, She Wrote” on CBS for 12 years.

After tropical depression Maymay, another cyclone may enter PAR on Oct. 13 — PAGASA

by Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz

(PAGASA / FACEBOOK)

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) continues to monitor a tropical depression east of Southern Luzon as it may enter the country’s area of responsibility on Thursday, Oct. 13.

The tropical depression, with maximum sustained winds of up to 45 kilometers per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 55 kph, was last observed at a distance of 2,020 kilometers east of Southern Luzon, according to PAGASA’s 11 a.m. advisory on Thursday.

It was moving northeastward at a speed of 20 kph.

“The tropical depression is forecast to decelerate as it moves generally north-northeastward in the next 12 hours before turning northward to northwestward while gaining speed. On the track forecast, the tropical depression may enter the PAR region on Thursday (Oct. 13) morning or afternoon. Afterwards, the tropical cyclone will move generally westward towards extreme Northern Luzon,” PAGASA said.

Based on initial analysis, the tropical depression may enter the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) on Thursday and approach the country’s landmass on Sunday, Oct. 16, said PAGASA Weather Division chief Jun Galang.

The next tropical cyclone will be named “Neneng.”

Galang added that PAGASA is not ruling out the possibility of a landfall over Northern Luzon or Central Luzon.

“Current track and intensity forecast shows that there is a high likelihood that tropical cyclone wind signals will be hoisted over Batanes and several provinces in Northern Luzon. The highest possible wind signal that may be hoisted is TCWS #2 (tropical cyclone wind signal number 2,” PAGASA said.

The State weather bureau pointed out that the passage of the tropical cyclone over extreme Northern Luzon may bring heavy rainfall over the area beginning Saturday, Oct. 15.

Aside from this tropical cyclone, a tropical depression with the local name “Maymay” is being monitored as it may make landfall over Aurora province or northern Quezon province by Wednesday, Oct. 12.

Circulation near Palawan has potential to become cyclone

Galang said PAGASA is also monitoring a circulation west of Palawan that may also form into a tropical cyclone.

However, it may only affect some portions of Palawan as it will eventually move away from the country. 

BSP wants stronger email cybersecurity for banks, non-banks

by Lee C. Chipongian, Manila Bulletin

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has issued recommendations for all its supervised financial institutions (BSFIs) to reinforce email security controls to effectively block persistent cyberthreats such as business email compromise (BEC), spam, phishing, ransomware and other malware attacks.

In a memo (Memorandum No. M-2022-043), signed by BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier last Oct. 7, the BSP wants banks to adopt six recommendations for a “robust and layered security controls” as well as industry best practices already laid out in existing BSP rules and regulations on cybersecurity.

But to further enhance email security, Fonacier said BSFIs should adopt, as warranted, the security controls and best practices in safeguarding both incoming and outgoing emails.

In addition, she said BSFIs are expected to promptly report to the BSP any major email-related cyber incidents and crimes as per BSP’s rules on event-driven report and notification (EDRN) and report on crimes and losses (RCL). “In certain instances, BSFIs may need to seek assistance and cooperate with appropriate law enforcement authorities for prompt resolution of cybercrime cases, especially if cases involve public safety and security, pursuant to the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and other relevant laws and regulations,” said Fonacier.

The BSP recognizes that in the digital transformation initiatives, email is the primary means of communication in core business operations from marketing and sales, and customer support services, to logistics and supplier contracting, among others.

Fonacier said email is also used as one of the main verification and authentication factors linked to a bank, financial, or e-payment account in providing electronic payments and financial services (EPFS).

“Given the central role of email in digital communications, cyberthreats ranging from spam, phishing, ransomware and other malware attacks targeting email platforms and communications continue to confront BSFIs,” said Fonacier.

BEC has been identified as the “most prevalent and costly cyberattacks for financial clients globally”. BEC is a type of cyberattack that utilizes seemingly legitimate email accounts from another organization to fraudulently trick employees of another business into giving their credentials, money, personal information, financial details or other sensitive data, said the BSP.

According to Fonacier, most BEC attacks leverage on spoofing of a corporate or individual’s identity whereby the email address of the legitimate sender is impersonated to mislead the recipient on the sender of the email, thereby making the fraud attempt more effective.

To counter BEC and other email-related cyberattacks, the BSP recommends BSFIs to adopt the following email security controls such as “to identify and cascade whether a virus or malware infection may spread by just opening or selecting an email.”

“While this is not true for most email clients, an assessment should be conducted on the current email platform and version used especially if it enables scripting or automatic downloads and execution, which may heighten the risk of infection,” said the BSP.

Another recommendation to all BSFIs is to always inspect the email header information such as: “Received from (sender) and By (receiver)”; the “From” information which shows the sender’s name and email address; the “Reply-To” which refers to the email address that will receive replies to the email; and “Return-Path” defines where bounced emails will be processed.

The BSP also strongly advises to scrutinize the content of the email. “Phishing emails oftentimes have generic greetings and contain unfamiliar links or attachments or unsolicited requests for personal information. These emails are also unexpected and usually contain a sense of urgency that pushes the recipient to act quickly. It is advisable not to click any attachments or links unless the communication is verified,” said the BSP.

The central bank also recommends the strict adoption of the following email security controls: contact the sender of the message through a different/trusted channel to verify the validity of the email; provide guidance on how to report and handle suspicious or malicious emails based on the entity’s policies; and conduct regular phishing simulations or exercises.

Heat waves will make regions uninhabitable

“There are clear limits beyond which people exposed to extreme heat and humidity cannot survive,” the report said. File Photo

By Agence France-Presse October 12, 2022 

HEAT waves will become so extreme in certain regions of the world within decades that human life there will be unsustainable, the United Nations and the Red Cross said Monday (Tuesday in Manila).

Heat waves are predicted to "exceed human physiological and social limits" in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and south and southwest Asia, with extreme events triggering "large-scale suffering and loss of life," the organizations said.

Heat wave catastrophes this year in countries like Somalia and Pakistan foreshadow a future with deadlier, more frequent and more intense heat-related humanitarian emergencies, they warned in a joint report.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) released the report in advance of next month's COP27 climate change summit in Egypt.

"We don't want to dramatize it, but clearly the data shows that it does lead toward a very bleak future," said IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain.

They said aggressive steps needed to be taken immediately to avert potentially recurrent heat disasters, listing steps that could mitigate the worst effects of extreme heat.

Limits of survival

"There are clear limits beyond which people exposed to extreme heat and humidity cannot survive," the report said.

"There are also likely to be levels of extreme heat beyond which societies may find it practically impossible to deliver effective adaptation for all.

"On current trajectories, heat waves could meet and exceed these physiological and social limits in the coming decades, including in regions such as the Sahel and south and southwest Asia."

It warned that the impact of this would be "large-scale suffering and loss of life, population movements and further entrenched inequality."

The report said extreme heat was a "silent killer," claiming thousands of lives each year as the deadliest weather-related hazard — and the dangers were set to grow at an "alarming rate" due to climate change.

According to a study cited by the report, the number of poor people living in extreme heat conditions in urban areas will jump by 700 percent by 2050, particularly in West Africa and Southeast Asia.

"Projected future death rates from extreme heat are staggeringly high — comparable in magnitude by the end of the century to all cancers or all infectious diseases — and staggeringly unequal," the report said.

Agricultural workers, children, the elderly, and pregnant and breastfeeding women are at higher risk of illness and death, the report claimed.

"As the climate crisis goes unchecked, extreme weather events, such as heat waves and floods, are hitting the most vulnerable people the hardest," said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.

"The humanitarian system is not equipped to handle crisis of this scale on our own."

'Previously unimaginable'

Chapagain urged countries at COP27 to invest in climate adaptation and mitigation in the regions most at risk.

CHA and the IFRC suggested five main steps to help combat the impact of extreme heat waves, including providing early information to help people and authorities react in time, and finding new ways of financing local-level action.

They also included humanitarian organizations testing more "thermally appropriate" emergency shelter and "cooling centers," while getting communities to alter their development planning to take account of likely extreme heat impacts.

OCHA and the IFRC said there were limits to extreme heat adaptation measures.

Some, such as increasing energy-intensive air-conditioning, are costly, environmentally unsustainable and contribute themselves to climate change.

If emissions of the greenhouse gases which cause climate change are not aggressively reduced, the world will face "previously unimaginable levels of extreme heat."

Sandro comments on weak peso, offers advice to Pinoys

by Ellson Quismorio, Manila Bulletin 

Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos recently wore his economist’s hat to comment on the weakening Philippine peso.

Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos
(Contributed photo)

“I would like to make one thing clear…the peso is not weak because the peso is weak. The peso is weak because the dollar is strong,” Marcos told local reporters in his district during a recent press briefing.

According to him, the United States (US) dollar is viewed as the safest or most stable currency, especially if there’s a crisis.

“Ang nangyayari ay lahat ng mga tao kapag may krisis ay bumibili ng dollar. Kapag binibili yung dollar, ang demanda ng dollar tumataas (What happens is, whenever there’s a crisis, people purchase dollars. And this results to the rise in then dollar’s demand). Which means, againts other currencies, it becomes stronger,” explained Marcos, who in 2017 earned his master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Despite the weakening of the Philippine peso against the US dollar, the senior deputy majority leader argued that the local currency is still “stabilized” against other currencies in the world.

On Monday, Oct. 10, the peso slid to its lowest level of P59 against the greenback.

“What can we do about it? On the bright side, madami tayong OFWs dito sa Ilocos (we have a lot of overseas Filipino workers here in Ilocos). So ang remittances na pinapadala nila na dollar value ay mas mataas (So they send more remittances here), so the remittances are worth more,” the Ilocano said.

Marcos also noted that the Philippines has “a significant amount of dollar reserves”. Thus, he said, “An option would be, potentially, to sell off the dollar reserves to be able to taper. Tataas pa rin yung value nung dollar pero hindi gaano kalaki (the dollar will still go up in value, but not as much).”

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But he later admitted that selling off local dollar reserves might not make much a difference, simply because it’s not as big compared to other countries.

“So I think the best piece of advice would just be to sit back and hold tight. What the national government I know is doing is to focus on food security because as we are a net importer of certain goods and services, we have to make sure that domestically, we are able to produce that,” the presidential son said.