UP says enrollment system ‘attacked’

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The system error encountered by students during enrollment at the University of the Philippines Los Baños in Laguna province was a deliberate attack on the student database, university officials said on Tuesday.

“Following the earlier reports of the sudden slowdown and inaccessibility of the Student Academic Information System (SAIS), coinciding with the enrollment period in UP Manila, UP Los Baños, UP Baguio, and UP Cebu, the eUP Project team has confirmed that the SAIS was subjected to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack,” the university said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.

A DoS attack, according to UP, is an “attempt to make an online service unavailable by overhwhelming it with traffic from one or more sources.”

The SAIS is one of the information systems under the eUP Project that aims to modernize and streamline its database across its campuses.

By logging on to the SAIS, students could enlist in courses being offered this semester as well as monitor their academic statuses.

In 2012, UP partnered with ePLDT and Smart Communications Inc. for the P135-million project. The system, however, broke down during the first few days of enrollment at UPLB.

Over the weekend, hundreds of students camped out within the campus, while trying to log on to the website, which was then accessible using only UP’s Wi-Fi connection.

The enrollmemt fiasco prompted Kabataan Rep. Sarah Jane Elago to seek a congressional inquiry into the eUP Project that used a proprietary software that cost P24 million for the initial roll-out alone.

READ: UP enrollment glitches prompt House probe

In the statement signed by eUP Project team head, Dr. Annette Lagman, UP said the SAIS “has long been secured from any DoS attack from known overseas attackers, but was configured to treat traffic coming from the Philippines as valid and not hostile.”

“However, ongoing investigation has revealed that the attack was carried out from the Philippines, culminating in about over four million hits over the past two days. This consequently overloaded the system and rendered it unstable,” it said.

UP said it is closely coordinating with authorities in investigating the attack while it takes measures to prevent a repeat of the incident.

The INQUIRER tried to seek comments from UPLB officials but Dr. Serlie Jamias, Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs, said the SAIS is a university initiative for all UP campuses.

“The system is currently stable and enrollment is proceeding normally,” the statement said.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, 4,629 students from UP Manila, 10,104 from UPLB, 1,863 from UP Baguio, and 1,060 from Cebu were able to enlist.

In UPLB, student population reaches around 14,000, according to the University Student Council.

Classes at UPLB start on Aug. 3.

“We strongly condemn this attack that has disrupted the enrollment process, causing great distress to our students and their families, faculty members, and staff. We stand in solidarity with all the affected members of the UP community,” the eUP team said. CDG/rga