MANILA, Philippines – Ikinokonsidera ng Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) ang pagde-dekomisyon ng 2G wireless communication para mapigilan ang talamak na text o short messaging service (SMS) scams.
Sa news forum nitong Sabado, Marso 1, sinabi ni DICT Undersecretary for Cybersecurity Jeffrey Ian Dy said na ang scam hubs ay gumagamit ng International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)-catchers “to extract your calls and your texts and to be able to blast.”
Ang IMSI-catchers, o tinatawag ding rogue cell towers o cell site simulators, na ginagamit para harangin ang text messages at makinig sa mga tawag sa telepono, ay nagagamit din para sa text blasts sa scamming operations sa pagpapanggap bilang telco, banko o job recruiter.
Ani Dy, ang IMSI-catchers “only works with a technology that’s below 3G… It works on 2G [technologies like] EDGE, GPRS.”
“So we’re already talking to telecommunications providers, this has to be through the regulator —the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)… We should now have a timeline to deprecate or to retire these equipment,” sinabi pa ng DICT official.
Dahil dito, dapat nang seryosohin ng DICT, NTC, at mobile service providers ang pag-phase out ng 2G mobile technology.
“We need to start the discussion on retiring anything that is below 3G in cellular mobile telecommunications perhaps in the next two years,” aniya.
“I understand that there are cost implications to this particular request,” dagdag pa.
Nasa kabuuang 6,157,517 text short message service (SMS) scams ang iniulat sa bansa noong 2024.
Sa pamamagitan ng pagreretiro sa 2G technology ay mababawasan ang mga text scam, ani Dy.
“For security purposes, we have to follow what our neighbors are now discussing… If we act now, it will significantly be lesser,” dagdag pa. RNT/JGC
