MANILA — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) confirmed on Tuesday that cybercriminals used spyware in their failed attempts to infiltrate various websites and emails of the Philippine government in January.

What we know about China's alleged state-backed hacking

 Some of the government websites that were targeted include that of the DICT, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Department of Justice, and even the website of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.

 While other threat actors would advertise or announce their attacks, DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said “the attackers are exerting extra effort into concealing their tracks.”

China says it 'does not support' cyberattacks despite hacking claims

 “This behavior is commonly seen for spyware attacks (attacks that only observe, and lurk in your system for years),” said Dy in a message to ABS-CBN News.

 But the agency stopped short of identifying the thwarted cyber attacks as a form of espionage.

 “I wouldn’t use the term espionage, but the attack was designed to gather information. Espionage kasi would imply that it is state sponsored, and we do not know that yet,” said Dy.

DICT spokesperson Renato Paraiso agreed, saying the motive behind the attempted attacks was still unclear.

 “They were trying to get access. Yun nga lang po, fortunately and unfortunately, napigilan natin ito at hindi na natin matutukoy ang talagang motibo sa pagha-hack at pag-i-infiltrate ng ating sistema,” he said in an interview with Teleradyo Serbisyo's Pintig ng Bayan.

The DICT earlier said that it traced the IP address of some of the perpetrators to a Chinese state-owned telecom company. But it said there was still no indication that the attack was state-sponsored.

Hacker na umatake sa gov't website, galing sa China telecom: DICT

“We still have no direct evidence this was perpetrated by the Chinese government,” said Dy.

But the DICT said it was coordinating with Beijing to get to the bottom of the attempted cyber attacks.

“Nakipag-usap na po sila sa atin at they were trying to coordinate. Umaasa tayo na sila naman sa parte nila, since they have primary jurisdiction at kontrolado nila yung territory nila, ay maging totoo sila sa kanilang pahayag na hindi nila hahayaan at hindi nila kino-condone itong mga aktibidades,” said Paraiso.