Tesda website hacked for 3rd time in 3 months

MANILA, Philippines - The website of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) was hacked Monday morning, the third time it happened in the past three months, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday.

Head Agent Palmer Mallari, chief of the NBI Anti-Computer Crimes Division (ACCD), said the hackers could have used another log to penetrate the Tesda system.

Mallari said there is a need for Tesda’s website host to implement measures to stop hackers from defacing the website.

He said Tesda managed to immediately correct the problem. The hackers had directed visitors to the website of Smartmatic, the contract tasked to implement the automated polls in May.

Mallari said the hackers who defaced the Tesda and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) both used proxy servers in order to make it appear that the hackers are from abroad. 

Mallari said the government agencies have different website hosts.

“I think it will be better if all government agencies have the same website host so they are assured of the reliability and capability of the website host. The website host will be subjected to further study and scrutiny as to its reliability and capability. There will also be uniformity in the system,” he said.  

Tesda’s website is the sixth government website hacked since December last year. Other agencies whose websites were defaced are the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).

Tesda, DSWD and the DOH have filed formal complaints before the NBI while the NDCC and DOLE have yet to do so, Mallari said.

He said they are not ruling out the possibility that the same group is responsible for hacking all five government websites.

Mallari said they will use the e-commerce law, Republic Act 8792, to go after the perpetrators, despite the law’s limitations.

He said a man was convicted of hacking a government website in 2004.