Converge bars 180 billion attempts to enter illegal sites

MANILA, Philippines — Broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions Inc. blocked last year more than 180 billion attempts to access illegal sites, a surge attributed to the rising use of artificial intelligence (AI) in online crimes.

Converge chief information security officer Andrew Malijan yesterday said the company rejected a record 183 billion attempts in 2024 to enter platforms that were registered in its network as illegal.

Malijan explained that Converge had stepped up its cybersecurity initiatives to keep pace with criminals who are increasingly exploiting AI to enhance their digital attacks.

Overall, Converge listed 150,000 links as illegal, meaning subscribers are barred from accessing them. These domains lead to sites containing materials related to online sexual abuse or exploitation of children (OSAEC) or promoting digital scams and illegal gambling.

Converge observed that it is blocking nearly 20 times more links since tagging them as malicious, concluding that these domains are likely cybercrime hotbeds. The company noted that 98 percent of the links are involved in the distribution of OSAEC materials.

“Traffic to these newly enrolled (domains) must have been quite heavy, as we managed to block almost 20 times as many attempts in 2024, as we did in the years 2021 to 2023, which was just 10 billion to 12 billion attempts,” Malijan said.

Converge chief executive adviser Eugene Yeo warned that illegal online activities are expected to balloon as cybercriminals exploit AI for their own benefit.

Converge, for its part, is also leveraging AI to detect and block attempts to access malicious sites, as the technology allows the network to respond more quickly in fighting cybercrimes.

However, Yeo emphasized that providers can only do so much in preventing individuals from visiting illegal platforms. He stressed the urgency for both the public and private sectors to intensify educational efforts aimed at informing consumers about the dangers of accessing cybercrime dens.

“These attempts on our customer network are most likely hinged on AI – hackers and malicious agents are no longer doing this manually or through human intervention. On our end, we can just keep on banning, but we now have to think about how to use this same technology to identify the malicious sites,” Yeo said.

Internet service providers are required by Republic Act 11930 to prohibit access to channels that distribute materials containing OSAEC, especially as the Philippines is internationally notorious as an OSAEC hotspot.

Based on data from the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the government received 579,006 tips in 2019 involving the sale of OSAEC materials.