The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said Wednesday it was upgrading its counter-intelligence capability even as it probes links of the alleged spying activities of Chinese nationals to foreign intelligence agencies.
“As I said, we have our intelligence command. This is part of their mandate to look into how we will be countering this and mitigating this. Over and above that, we are enhancing our systems. So like our use of encrypted communications, signal and government approved secured apps,” AFP Spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla told reporters.
“We have also enhanced our mobile network security to address all of these things. We are also deploying IMSI captures and detectors., That’s why NBI catches them.” she added.
The NBI and military intelligence arrested two Chinese nationals and three Filipinos in a raid on Tuesday. The men allegedly paid their Filipino accomplices to drive them through the capital Manila while using an “IMSI catcher,” a device capable of mimicking a cell tower and snatching messages from the air in a 1-3 kilometer (about 3,200-9,800 feet) radius.
Vehicles carrying the devices were operating near sensitive sites including the presidential palace, the US embassy, Camp Aguinaldo, Camp Crame and Villamor Air Base, according to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“We will look at the espionage and foreign intelligence operations that are involved in this, the threat to government and military communications, who are their target personalities to get this equipment, and of course cyber-related disinformation and psychological operations if there are any.”
The AFP is now assessing whether the recent arrests were related to the previous series of similar espionage-related arrests, including the January detention of five Chinese nationals using drones and cameras to spy on military sites.
“We are looking at a lot of angles here but as we keep telling, all of these activities, we’re looking at them and trying to piece this information into a bigger picture and connect the dots,” Padilla said.
In a similar development, the Department of National Defense (DND) said, it has not monitored any data breach over the weekend, and its systems remain secure and fully functional.
“The DND, along with its bureaus, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines, continues to implement its cybersecurity to prevent attempts by malign actors to illegally access our ICT systems and infrastructure.” DND Spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said in a message.
