The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) reported on Monday, Feb. 12, that at least six government agencies received bomb threats by email.
Aside from the unnamed government agencies, online posts also claimed that trial courts were also forced to postpone their hearings due to the same email threats.
The CICC, together with the Philippine National Police, said it was able to see the emails containing the bomb threats that were sent to the government agencies.
“There is no cause for alarm as the sender and email has been tagged as a hoax,” the CICC said in a statement.
At about the same time, multiple government agencies in Seoul, South Korea also received the same email, according to the CICC.
“Last year, the alleged sender sent the same bomb threat to several government agencies,” it added.
The CICC said the email originated from Japan whose domain name was registered locally in Japan.
“Efforts are on the way to request the Japanese government to investigate thoroughly and identify the sender,” the agency said.
As part of the emergency protocols, the affected government agencies were advised to practice their emergency evacuation procedures as part of the agency preparedness.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) secretary Ivan Uy is coordinating with the Japanese embassy regarding the investigation, the CICC said.
