Website of P-Noy hacked by group critical of acts on Sabah

MANILA, Philippines - A hacker’s group critical of the government’s handling of the Sabah crisis yesterday managed to breach one of President Aquino’s official websites. Secretary Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Office told reporters the hacking of president.gov.ph by a group that called itself “Anonymous Philippines” was detected around 1:30 a.m. yesterday.  

“An errant sentence critical of the government on the Sabah issue was found to have been inserted in one of the news items within the website,” Coloma said, citing the group’s complaint on what it described as the  “mishandling” of the Sabah crisis.

The hackers did not hide their displeasure at how the government handled the issue by posting these messages: “Greetings, President Aquino! We have watched how you signed into law a bill that endangers and tramples upon the netizens’ freedom of speech and expression.” 

The hackers were obviously referring to the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which Aquino signed into law in September 2012.

“Now, we are silent witnesses as to how you are mishandling the Sabah issue. We did not engage the Malaysian hackers who invaded our cyberspace since we expected you to appropriately and judiciously act on the same, but you failed us,” the message said.

“You did nothing while our fellow brothers are being butchered by the Malaysian forces, and while our women and children become subject of human rights abuses. If you can’t act on the issue as the Philippine President, at least do something as a fellow Filipino. We are watching,” the message further said. 

The website was restored by 10 a.m. 

“No further intrusions were made as the internal security protocols were activated,” Coloma assured newsmen.

All Palace portals are ‘secure’  

In January, Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Malacañang was studying a proposal for the government to host all state websites to prevent hackers from gaining control and defacing these portals in the future. Lacierda said placing all state websites under the government would ensure their safety from hackers because the government domain – managed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) – was less prone to hacking. “Those (websites) that are hosted by DOST are secure; for instance (the) PCDSPO (Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office) and the OG (Official Gazette), they are hosted by the government and as much as the hackers have attempted to attack the OG (website), it has never been defaced,” he said.   

The Palace official also said some government websites were hosted by private entities and there had been a suggestion to move or migrate their hosting to government.

Six state websites – http://pro8.pnp.gov.ph/, http://mambulao.gov.ph/, http://www.cpa.gov.ph/, http://mmda.gov.ph/, http://nfa.gov.ph/, http://www.nmp.gov.ph/ –  were recently penetrated by hackers opposed to the cybercrime law.