Hackers strike PHL gov't website anew

Hackers continued to attack the Philippine government's online presence, with at least one agency on Thursday reporting a denial-of-service attack the night before.

 

The Department of Budget and Management said the latest attack on its website was recorded at 10 p.m. Wednesday, preventing users from accessing the site.

 

"At around 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25, 2012, the DBM website was once again subject to attack, resulting in a denial-of-service error that prevented users from accessing the site. Unidentified parties defaced the website earlier in the same day at around 2:00 p.m., rendering the website temporarily unavailable," DBM Secretary Florencio Abad said.

 

The site remained offline as of 4 p.m. Thursday.

 

Abad said the DBM website is still undergoing a "security audit" and may be inaccessible "until critical issues are resolved."

 

"Our initial findings show that all important data in the website have not been compromised, and we are taking additional measures to reinforce the security of our servers and prevent future attacks," he added.

 

Meanwhile, some government sites were inaccessible Thursday afternoon, including that of the Philippine National Police (www.pnp.gov.ph).

 

As of 3:30 p.m., visitors to the PNP website were greeted with an "index" page listing the site's contents.

 

The Department of Foreign Affairs website (www.dfa.gov.ph) was also intermittently inaccessible as of Thursday afternoon. — TJD, GMA News