The House of Representatives website will remain offline until the Department of Information and Communications Technology, or DICT, and its partner agencies conclude their investigation into a cybersecurity attack last Sunday.

The DICT clarified on Monday that the move aims to prevent unauthorized access to the HoR website. It added that it has reported the incident to the Philippine National Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT-PH for further action.

"CERT-PH is (investigating) to determine if sensitive data had been exfiltrated by the threat actor. Recommendations were likewise provided to the HoR IT team to prevent future security breaches on their website," the DICT said.

Senate, too

According to the DICT, the ongoing investigation will include a threat actor attribution and case build-up, which will be pursued by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, in coordination with law enforcement agencies.

Aside from the HoR website, the system of the Department of Science and Technology or DoST, the country's premiere science and technology body, was also confirmed to have come under cyberattack.

However, the DICT indicated that the incident was only "small scale."

DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said the DoST system hack had been reported to the agency as early as September.

He said the DICT prioritized attending to the attacks on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. or PhilHealth and the Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA.

To recall, the DICT had been asking the Senate to reconsider its proposed P300 million in confidential funds to bankroll cybersecurity programs.

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

Members of Congress this week said they will scout for additional funding sources for DICT so it could address the cyberattacks more effectively.

House Committee on Appropriations chairperson Elizaldy Co asked the Department of Budget and Management to allocate additional funds to the DICT. The House, according to Co, will also seek the Senate's support for the DICT.