Hackers attack Binay website

Vice President Jejomar Binay INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Hackers temporarily shut down on New Year’s day several government websites, including the Office of the Vice President’s, officials said Monday.

Vice President Jejomar Binay said hackers calling themselves PrivateX brought down his official website on Sunday and denied access to mostly migrant Filipinos checking on his office’s activities. Binay is also President Benigno Aquino III’s adviser on overseas Filipino workers’ concerns.

“On Jan. 1, 2012, at about 4 p.m., the official website of the Office of the Vice President was hacked by the PrivateX group, which caused the site to be down more than 15 hours,” Binay said in a statement.

Joey Salgado, Binay’s media officer, said the website was being hosted by the Advanced Science and Technology Institute, an agency attached to the Department of Science and Technology.

“We have been informed that ASTI is looking into the incident and will put in place the needed safeguards,” he said.

The same group also defaced the websites of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, Optical Media Board and two other small government agencies.

Little is known about PrivateX, but in a message it left on the websites, it said its purpose was to show how vulnerable Philippine websites were to such attacks.

Its aim was to call out “the government’s action toward cyber security.”

“We are anonymous. We are legion. We don’t forgive, we don’t forget. United as one, divided by zero. Expect us,” the statement said. Reports from AFP and Jerry E. Esplanada