DFA slams cyber attacks on Phl, Chinese websites

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) denounced yesterday the cyber attacks by anonymous hackers on Philippine and Chinese websites.

“They (hacker attacks) are counter productive and will only add to the tensions (between the two countries),” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a press briefing.

The DFA called on Filipino and Chinese citizens to be more responsible and encourage dialogue rather than sow discord amid the standoff between the Philippines and China over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

“Cyber attacks are nothing new. Our government has already taken these things into consideration and is doing all it can to protect our computer systems so as to prevent any disruption in our day-to-day operations,” Hernandez added.

The appeal came as Malacañang said yesterday the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office noticed a significant spike in traffic with malicious uniform resource locator (URL) requests from forged user-agents being channeled to the Official Gazette website (URL: www.gov.ph), to the PCDSPO website (URL: www.pcdspo.gov.ph), and to the Presidential Museum and Library website (URL: www.malacañang.gov.ph), causing servers to momentarily lag.

“We determined that this was a denial-of-service attack. Information gathered through our data analysis indicated that the attack originated from IP (Internet protocol) addresses assigned to Chinese networks,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

“The PCDSPO is endeavoring to maintain its websites. However, please note that we can expect temporary disruption of service while the attack is ongoing,” he said.

University of the Philippines administrators earlier took down the school’s website after it was allegedly hacked by Chinese supporting ownership claims to Panatag Shoal.

According to ABS-CBNnews.com, unknown assailants “uploaded inflammatory content” about the Philippines’ dispute with China over the shoal, called Huangyan Island by the Chinese.

Attackers posted the text “We come from China! Huangyan Island is Ours!” and showed a map with China-recognized territorial lines. – With Aurea Calica