The computer system of the Department of Science and Technology or DoST, the country's premier science and technology agency, is now also under cyberattack.

However, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, or DICT, indicated that the incident was "small-scale."

In a radio interview on Friday, DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said the DoST system hacking had been reported to the agency as early as September.

He said the DICT prioritized its attention to the attack on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. or PhilHealth and the Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA.

According to Dy, the data breach at the DoST involved the personally identifiable information of about 10,000 experts in its OneExpert portal.

The OneExpert portal serves as a publicly available registry of Filipino experts, allowing clients more access to their services. It serves as an online gateway to expand assistance on science and technology in the country.

As such, Dy said DoST officials had been advised to ensure that the affected experts whose vital information was leaked "undertake proper defenses or mitigations."

The DoST said it remains on top of the situation to ensure no sensitive personal information is compromised.

"While the list of clients or users is not readily accessible through the portal, the website's use is diligently monitored, reported, and made available as part of DoST official records," the DoST said in a statement.

To recall, DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy disclosed in a recent television interview that he would ask the Senate to reconsider its proposed P300 million in confidential funds to bankroll cybersecurity programs.

"While cyber threats and cyber criminals are increasing and the Philippines is defunding our cybersecurity, that is announcing to the world that we're not interested in protecting our cyber borders," Uy said.

The DICT is one of the agencies that faced budget cuts in the lower house's decision to transfer funds to auditable items.