Gov’t websites secure, official says

From the Philippine Star (May 19): Gov’t websites secure, official says

A government official has assured the public of the security of government websites recently affected by cyber attacks that allegedly originated from Taiwan.

Roy Espiritu, communications head of the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO), told The STAR yesterday that most websites affected by the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks last week are now up and running.

Espiritu said they are working hard to keep the sites operational, stressing that government portals – especially those that are maintained by ICTO – are secure from possible attacks in the future.

He said they are looking into the possibility of incorporating security measures to beef up the defenses of government websites.

He said they are waiting for funds that would enable them to install features, such as the one incorporated in the Official Gazette website, to mitigate the effects of a DDoS attack.

DDoS attacks are mounted to shut down an Internet site by flooding it with access requests and overload its server handling capabilities. Websites affected by successful DDoS attacks are inaccessible.

The Official Gazette website (gov.ph) is protected from DDoS attacks by CloudFare, which offers security by checking the integrity of browsers and looking for threat signatures from users who wish to access the site.

DDoS attacks are dependent on the number of people trying to access the website at the same time. Espiritu noted that even the most secure websites could be affected by such attacks.

In 2010, websites of both Visa and MasterCard were affected by a DDoS attack mounted by supporters of whistleblower organization WikiLeaks.

Last week, several Philippine government websites became inaccessible due to an alleged DDoS attack in retaliation over the death of a Taiwanese fisherman supposedly shot by members of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on May 9.

Among the sites affected by the attack include those of the Office of the President, Senate, House of Representatives, Commission on Elections, the Philippine National Police, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The websites of various departments and other national agencies were also affected and were inaccessible to the public. The incident happened days before the May 13 elections.

Earlier reports added the website of the Department of Science and Technology, the department in which ICTO is an attached agency, was also defaced by alleged Taiwanese hackers.

A random check of the affected sites yesterday showed the website of the Office of the President (op.gov.ph) and the Philippine Coast Guard (coastguard.gov.ph) remain inaccessible.

The rest of the affected sites are now operational.

Espiritu said they are now working to put the still inaccessible websites back online. He said they have not recorded any incidents of DDoS attacks against government websites this weekend.

Reacting to the release of alleged log-in information of dozens of Philippine government websites, the ICTO official said the list appears to be “bogus” as they have not detected hacking incidents using the said log-in information.

The said list was released via a link posted on the Twitter account of Hacktivist group Anonymous Taiwan.

Earlier, reports from Taiwanese media said similar DDoS attacks, apparently emanating from the Philippines, rendered some of their government’s websites inaccessible.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/05/19/943724/govt-websites-secure-official-says