Philippines 5th most targeted by Chinese cyber operations -- Microsoft

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The Philippines is the fifth-most targeted country by Chinese state-sponsored cyber operations, according to a report by tech giant Microsoft.

In its Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2026, the company detailed its findings on state-sponsored hacking and digital operations involving China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

The Philippines also ranked 10th among the countries most targeted by North Korea and 12th among those most frequently targeted by cyber threats overall, according to the report.

Microsoft said Chinese state actors focused on large-scale information gathering from a wide range of targets.

“This supports their government’s international objectives and whole-of-state intelligence fusion, an approach that combines political oversight, military apparatus, and commercial industries into a single party-led apparatus,” the report said.

“The goals of Chinese state actors remain largely consistent over time and center on long-term access to facilitate espionage,” it added.

The United States was the most targeted country by Chinese state actors, accounting for 27% of the reported activity, followed by Taiwan at 24% and Japan at 20%. Hong Kong, at 3%, and the Philippines, at 2%, rounded out the top five.

Other targets included Malaysia, Italy, and the United Kingdom, each accounting for 2%, while Germany and Belgium each accounted for 1%.

Chinese state actors have reportedly employed various cyber techniques, including exploiting vulnerabilities in publicly accessible applications, uploading web shells or malicious scripts, and deploying remote access trojans.

However, Microsoft noted that some Chinese state actors were shifting toward identity-based attacks, cloud-native persistence, and data theft.

Their cyber operations prioritized data collection from information technology and government organizations. Other targeted sectors included research and academia, think tanks and non-governmental organizations, critical manufacturing, transportation, consumer retail, finance, defense, and public health.

Artificial intelligence has further enhanced the capabilities of these threat actors, Microsoft said.

“Chinese state actors experiment with new technologies as they gain adoption, fitting them into existing workflows. Some actors now use AI tools to search for vulnerabilities or tips on exploiting them,” the report said.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has previously warned of escalating Chinese cyber threats in 2026, as geopolitical tensions between Manila and Beijing intensified over the West Philippine Sea. —VBL, GMA News