‘Spike in attacks’ on Senate website bared
FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Tuesday disclosed a “spike in attacks” on its website over the weekend.
“Per our IT, we recorded a spike in attacks last Sunday,” Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. said in a text message to reporters.
On Sunday, October 15, the website of the House of Representatives was defaced by a group called “3MUSKETEERZ.”
“As soon as we learned of the HRep website hacking, our team went on alert and continuous monitoring,” Bantug said.
“May perimeter and application firewall naman ang Senate (The Senate has perimeter and application firewall), but our tech team also made adjustments,” he added.
Bantug did not categorically say, however, if the “spike in attacks” meant there had been previous attempts by hackers to vandalize their online portal.
“In this age, commonplace naman na ang attempts (cyberattack attempts are commonplace),” he said. “But around noon nung Sunday nag-spike talaga (But around noon last Sunday, it really spiked).”
Hackers also recently attacked the websites of other government offices, such as the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Philippine Statistics Authority, and the Department of Science and Technology.
READ: Philhealth data breach largest since ‘Comeleak’
The Senate committee on science and technology will investigate the PhilHealth data breach this Tuesday afternoon.
