MANILA — Over 400,000 of 15 million subscribers of DITO Telecommunity have already signed up since the start of SIM card registration, an official of the country's third telco player said Wednesday.

"As of 7 a.m, we have almost half a million, 408,118 successful registrants. Of this number, about 6,371 were new user registration," DITO Telecommunity chief administrative officer Adel Tamano told ANC's "Headstart".

He described DITO's first day of SIM card registration as "smooth," adding that users were able to register in less than 5 minutes.

To encourage more of its users to register, DITO is also offering 2-gigabyte bonus data.

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In the interview, Tamano disclosed that hacking attempts were made on DITO's SIM registration portal.

DITO was able to fend off the attack through a web application firewall and intrusion prevention system, he said.

"We're still investigating the sources [of the attack]," Tamano said.

"There really are bad people out there who will try to attack our systems and who will not want us to register because they use the cloak of anonymity of unregistered sims as a way to conduct their crimes and that's why they would be very happy if SIM registration is a failure," he added.

Republic Act 11934 or the SIM Registration Act requires all new subscribers to register their SIM card prior to activation, and for existing subscribers to avoid deactivation.

The law promotes accountability on the use of the SIM card and provides authorities the necessary tools to detect and stop criminal activities such as text scams, cybercrimes, terrorism, and other offenses committed through text messages, voice calls and other relevant telecommunications services.

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