THE Philippines is explicitly listed among countries whose national networks are being systematically mapped and integrated into Chinese intelligence systems, a former top intelligence official disclosed at the Pilipinas Conference 2025.
Francisco Ashley Acedillo, former Deputy Director General for Cyber and Emerging Threats of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica), revealed that leaked intelligence from Chinese cyber-contractor KnownSec exposed an ‘industrial-scale reconnaissance system.directly targeting’ Philippine critical infrastructure, government systems, and key institutions.
‘This confirms that our critical infrastructure, government systems, and key institutions are under active surveillance,’ Acedillo said, adding that the leak revealed a ‘Key Target Library’ containing 378 million IP addresses and 3.4 million domains across foreign governments, military, telecommunications, finance, and energy sectors.
The intelligence system reportedly compresses China’s operational reaction time from weeks to hours when new vulnerabilities emerge, creating what Acedillo described as an ‘asymmetric advantage where Chinese operators can quickly exploit weaknesses in Philippine systems.’
Acedillo said the leaked data includes warehouses containing LinkedIn datasets, telecom records, Telegram user information, e-commerce transaction logs, and credential dumps, ‘suggesting potential compromise of Filipino citizens’ personal data and communication channels.’
‘The systematic mapping of critical infrastructure suggests pre-positioning for potential cyber operations during periods of geopolitical tension,’ Acedillo warned, noting particular concern given regional maritime disputes in the West Philippine Sea.
Acedillo said there are three overlapping challenges defining the Philippine security context: persistent maritime coercion in the West Philippine Sea; the rapidly expanding attack surface created by the country’s digitizing economy; and the Philippines’s position within a competitive regional cyber ecosystem where state-linked operators from China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran conduct espionage and influence activities.
He said China has developed a comprehensive approach merging state, military, academic, and private sector capabilities, with their hacking contest ecosystem serving multiple purposes from talent identification to vulnerability discovery.
‘What makes this approach particularly concerning is how it enables China to maintain plausible deniability while developing capabilities that directly threaten our critical infrastructure and sovereignty,’ he said. ‘Our intelligence indicates that Chinese cyber operations increasingly align with their broader maritime coercion strategy in the South China Sea.’
Acedillo proposed several measures, including validating national exposure using adversary-emulation tools, hardening perimeter systems across government and key sectors, strengthening public-private partnerships, and enhancing regional engagement through Asean forums.
He also suggested the passage of a National Cybersecurity Law and the establishment of a Philippine Cyber Force as the fourth branch of the Armed Forces.
‘Cybersecurity is national security’
According to Stratbase Institute President Victor Andres Manhit, cybersecurity plays a critical role in ensuring a safer Philippines.
‘Threats increasingly emerge from the digital domain: unseen, borderless, and asymmetrical,’ he stressed, noting how deepfakes and foreign information manipulation now ‘blur traditional security boundaries.’
‘Cybersecurity is not only about technology; it is about trust,’ Manhit added. ‘Cybersecurity is national security.Protecting our digital domain is a shared responsibility among the state, the private sector, and the international community,’ he added.
Investors’ role
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda called for investors to prioritize cybersecurity, as it is a crucial step toward ‘digital resilience.’
‘By investing in digital defense, you are not just guarding data, but safeguarding our economic future,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Japanese Ambassador Endo Kazuya highlighted the rapid escalation of cyberattacks globally, citing Japan’s monitoring data showing cyberattack-related communications surging from 63 billion packets in 2015 to 686 billion in 2024.
‘No single nation can address threats in cyberspace alone. International cooperation is indispensable,’ he said.
He affirmed Japan’s commitment to enhance the Philippines’s cybersecurity capabilities through initiatives like the Asean-Japan Cybersecurity Capacity Building Center, which has trained 4,400 personnel across the region.