Anonymous reprimands its own: Don't hack vital sites

Published October 4, 2012 4:19pm

There is indeed honor even among thieves, it seems.

Hackers opposing the Anti-Cybercrime Act for its potential to stifle freedom of speech on Thursday drew the line at the hacking of vital public-service government sites to register their opposition.

Anonymous Philippines chided hackers who attacked the site of the government's Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), saying that hacks are not just for show.

'Show-offs' are 'not cool'

"People, please think before you do something and make sure if you hack into something it will do something good not just by showing off you talents. Always remember why we are doing this," it said.

It said it had received reports that some of its own hackers tried to infiltrate Project NOAH, which it said "is meant to help people during storms and typhoons."

The group said it was "not cool" for hackers to try to hack it in the middle of a storm —referring to Tropical Storm Marce (Gaemi).

As of 4 p.m., Anonymous Philippines' post was "Liked" by at least 300 people and shared over 44 times across the social network. Most of the almost 100 comments on the post strongly agreed with Anonymous' decision to call on hackers to stand down from hitting vital sites.

"tama... cyber revolution must have its ethics," wrote one commenter.

"mamili naman kayo ng ihahack ninyo...wag naman yung sector na tumutulong sa tao...kaya nga kayo nabuo para itama ang mali...ituwid ang baluktot...hindi yung imali ang tama at baluktutin ang tuwid...MAG ISIP naman muna!" exhorted another commenter.

Other hackers disown NOAH attack

Other allied hacker groups also distanced themselves from the attack.

"Pinapaalam ko po sa lahat na di sa amin galing ng PrivateX #pR.is0n3r Anonymous #Philippine Cyber Army Anonymous Philippines galing ang atake sa project Noah ....," it said.

Project NOAH is an online Philippine map with statistics on rain and flooding.

Earlier, its head Mahar Lagmay tweeted NOAH servers were under a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

"We are sorry for the temporary service interruption," Lagmay said.

But hours later, Lagmay said that their defenses had successfully "repelled the assault." — TJD, GMA News

Tags: anonymous, anonymousphilippines, philippines, cybercrime, hackers