Philippine gov't websites defaced amid September 21 rallies

Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda on Monday said a total of 19 government websites had experienced defacement amid the protest actions held over the weekend.

''Subalit po may naitala po kami, 19 na website ng gobyerno ang naka-experience po ng defacement, ibig sabihin po, kinuha iyong website, binago pero mabilis naman pong nakapag-react ang mga government agencies po. Para po mailagay natin sa perspective iyong 19, iyong 19 po out of almost 60,000 apps and website ng bansa so maliit lang po iyong naging epekto nito,'' Aguda said in a press conference. 

(We've recorded... 19 websites of the government had experienced defacement, meaning their websites were obtained, changed, but government agencies immediately reacted. In order to put it in perspective, these 19 were out of the almost 60,000 apps and websites in the country so it's only small.)

''Walang naitalang matagumpay na cyber breach din po mula sa overseas o tinatawag po nating 'nation state actors,' ligtas at maayos ang lahat ng critical government systems,'' Aguda added. 

(No cyber breach was recorded to be successful; all critical government systems were safe.) 

Aguda said most of the websites that experienced defacement were from local government units, while four of them were from national government agencies. 

He added that there were 1.4 million attempted breaches over the weekend.

''Ang dami niyan. And kung makikita ninyo, apat lang iyong nakalusot,'' Aguda said. 

(It's a lot, but as you can see, there are only four that succeeded.) 

Earlier, Aguda revealed that the group ''Anonymous PH'' was behind the Black Mask protest on Sunday, based on the intelligence information gathered by the agency. 

He said the government already has persons of interest following the violent demonstration in Manila City.  –NB, GMA Integrated News