NBI says main government website hacked

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday said the government’s main website became inaccessible due to a cyber attack.

NBI cybercrime division chief Victor Lorenzo told a Palace news conference that the website www.gov.ph was hacked by still unidentified individuals.

“There was indeed a denial-of-service attack,” he said.

He said the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is also looking into the incident.

“The DICT is doing the proper attribution, and we will be requesting them the necessary details that they have regarding the attack so we could officially begin the investigation,” Lorenzo said.

“There were previous attacks and we have been monitoring their activities. We are confident that we would be able to address the issue and we could identify those people behind these attacks.”

A group calling itself “Cyber PH for Human Rights” on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the attack as it condemned the killings of nine activists in Calabarzon on Sunday after authorities implemented search warrants against suspected communist rebels.

Lorenzo said the group’s claim has to be verified.

“One of the motives in hacking a website or defacing websites or doing those attacks is for bragging purposes or, of course, plain and simple hacktivism,” he said.

“If they claim that some databases have been compromised, we should not take that hook, line and sinker.” — RSJ, GMA News