The
Philippine government has warned Filipino techies against defacing Chinese websites
amid tensions over the disputed Scarborough Shoal off the coast of Zambales,
which both Manila and Beijing are claiming as their own.
In a statement, the Department of Science and
Technology’s Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) said
trading barbs online would not help in the government’s efforts to ease
tensions with China peacefully.
“We understand the concern of our local hacker
community on this issue, however, exchanges such as this one would not benefit
anyone and could lead to bigger problems in the future for both countries
concerned and could escalate the already tense situation in Panatag Shoal,”
ICTO Executive Director Louis Casambre said.
Over the weekend, Philippine websites have been
defaced by Chinese nationals, and vice versa, as “netizens” took the quarrel
between both countries online.
“The recent alleged defacement of foreign websites
by local hacker groups is not condoned nor encouraged by the Philippine
Government,” Casambre said.
UP
site hacked over Scarborough Shoal
The University of the Philippines website was
allegedly defaced by Chinese nationals sympathetic to China’s claims on what is
known internationally as Scarborough Shoal. The website of the Palace
Communications Group was also reported subjected to a “distributed denial of
service” (DDOS) attack.
Philippine hackers supposedly retaliated defacing
several Chinese websites.
Filipino hackers fight back, deface Chinese sites
Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo said
online attacks by both countries against each other would only serve to flare
tempers on either side.
“These alleged hacking and counter-hacking
activities are unsanctioned by either government and is basically a reflection
of what citizens of either country feel about the situation. It is our job in
government to seek diplomatic solutions to these issues and not let these
things get out of hand,” he said.
ICTO’s Casambre said the government has been working
hard to fend off further attacks, most of which have been traced to China.
He said attempts at DDOS attacks from overseas on
the state’s “gov.ph” site were detected on Monday and promptly blocked by
government tech administrators.
Cyber
war: Palace websites attacked
A DDOS attack aims to make a computer or network
unavailable to its intended users. This is done usually by a group or by a
single user in control of several devices looking to stop a particular Internet
site or service from functioning properly.
This is done by flooding a server with more network
traffic than it is able to handle. This prevents the server from carrying out
its normal functions and in some cases crashes the server completely.
Last March, a report by Russian Internet security
firm Kaspersky Labs showed that the Philippines ranked 13th on the list of 23
countries where “distributed denial of service” or DDOS attacks originated in
2011.
The Philippines was one of four Southeast Asian
countries to make the list, the two others being Malaysia at 5th, Indonesia at
18th and Vietnam at 19th. Over 90 percent of all DDOS attacks came from the 23
countries on the list.
As much as 2 percent of these came from the
Philippines, Kaspersky Labs analysts Maria Garnaeva and Yury Namestnikov said.
Casambre said the hacking of the UP website
demonstrates vulnerabilities of some government sites and the need for more
stringent cyber security standards. “Along with the Cybercrime Bill that is
currently undergoing bicameral review, the DOST-ICTO in cooperation with the
Office of the President is at the final stages of developing an Executive Order
creating a top level body which will spearhead government efforts on cybercrime
and cybersecurity, and will strengthen the necessary coordination and
implementation of uniform security standards in government,” Casambre said.
Paolo G. Montecillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
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