House website offline again due to 'suspicious, unusual' activities —SecGen

The House of Representatives' official website was offline again Tuesday due to "suspicious and unusual activities," according to House Secretary General Reginald Velasco.

"We regret to inform the public that the official website of the House of Representatives has been voluntarily taken offline once again," Velasco said in a statement.

"Despite our recent security enhancements, we have detected suspicious and unusual activities that necessitate further scrutiny."

The chamber's website was defaced and became inaccessible on Sunday.

The URL congress.gov.ph had the following message on its homepage on Sunday morning: "YOU'VE BEEN HACKED. YOU'VE BEEN HACKED. HAVE A NICE DAY." It was accompanied by a caricature of a laughing man and the message "HAPPY APRIL FULLZ KAHIT OCTOBER PALANG! HACKED BY 3MUSKETEERZ 15-October-2023 || 11:31:24 AM" below it.

Velasco said they have to take the website offline on Tuesday as a "precautionary measure to double-check and reinforce the cybersecurity measures we have undertaken, ensuring no vulnerabilities remain."

"Our primary concern is to guarantee the safety, integrity, and reliability of our digital platform for the citizens we serve," he said.

In an interview, Velasco said the House’s website went online around 4 p.m. on Monday but it had to be taken down again around 12:58 p.m. on Tuesday.

Velasco said the takedown of the House’s website needed to be done to ensure that those accessing the website do not have ill motives.

“We took it down to make sure that those accessing the website are legitimate. Our website was an instant hit [since the incident]. Before, not too many people were accessing it, but now, there are lots of people going to the website,” he said.

“There are committee reports [on the website] which they (hackers) can change, they can make a stand of the lawmaker on a particular measure a yes when in fact the lawmaker is against it. These are the types of information that they can tinker with, along with other pending legislation there [on the website],” Velasco added.

Director Arnold de Castro, an IT practitioner under the Office of the House Secretary General, said the hackers' motive is clearly more than to deface the website.

“The DICT is still investigating, but we did scanning overnight and later found out that they have a lot of backdoor [access] that they can exploit, so we decided to take it down until we harden the system with securities,” De Castro said.

Velasco earlier said the House of Representatives is considering tapping a third-party firm to improve its cybersecurity following the hacking incident. —with Llanesca T. Panti/KBK, GMA Integrated News