Government websites protected from cyber attacks, says Coloma

Government websites remain protected from cyber attacks in the midst of threats from hackers enraged by the imposition of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement on Thursday.

“We continue to adopt appropriate security measures to ensure the integrity of our websites,” Coloma said in a statement in response to reports saying government sites were attacked.

Coloma also made clarifications over reports that said that the Office of the President (www.president.gov.ph) website became inaccessible to the public as of 7:50 p.m. Wednesday, with visitors getting an error message.

The President’s website has undergone a scheduled systems maintenance that lasted for about five hours in the morning of October 3, he said, explaining that during this period, Facebook fans and Twitter followers of the President were duly re-directed and were able to use these social media channels without any interruption.

Coloma also said that other government websites, haven’t been hacked or defaced since last week, contrary to reports that said Philippine Information Agency website was attacked.

“There was no actual defacement of the PIA website and at no time was there a service disruption. In the morning of 2 October, a hacker apparently got into the personal email account of one of the online editors and inserted a link that appeared in one of the posted stories,” Coloma said adding that the specific issue was immediately addressed.

There were reports that also said hackers had attacked several government sites Wednesday, the first day the controversial Anti-Cybercrime Act took effect.

Several groups had questioned or opposed the new law, saying that particular provisions on online libel may threaten the public’s right to freedom of speech.

Source: Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO)

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