House eyes third-party firm to beef up cybersecurity after website hack

The House of Representatives is considering tapping a third-party firm to improve its cybersecurity following the defacing of its website over the weekend, House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said Monday.

The congress.gov.ph website on Sunday showed messages including one that read, "YOU'VE BEEN HACKED. YOU'VE BEEN HACKED. HAVE A NICE DAY.”

“We are thinking of outsourcing, having a third party to help us improve cybersecurity and rectify all these vulnerabilities identified by the DICT [Department of Information and Communications Technology] in our website,” Velasco told reporters.

“We are thinking about it. We will vet them first, look at their credentials, experience and client base,” he added.

Velasco said that while there was no data breach, this should never happen again.

“We have to admit that we lack experience [in dealing] with cybersecurity. We have an IT group, but they are not enough to address the vulnerabilities discovered by the DICT,” he said.

"They need to have previous experience working with the government so they know what is in store for them," he added.

Before the defacement of the House’s website, there were consecutive reports of government websites and databases being hit by cyber attacks such as PhilHealth, the Department of Science and Technology, the Philippine National Police, and the Philippine Statistics Authority.  — BM, GMA Integrated News