More than 100 PH gov’t websites down due to hardware failure — DICT

More than 100 government websites were down on Tuesday due to a server hardware failure.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) confirmed to INQUIRER.net that an estimated 100 websites were affected when a six-year-old server that runs the websites malfunctioned.

DICT expressed confidence that the issue will be resolved before the week ends.

“The Government Web Hosting Service (GWHS) is experiencing hardware failure on one of its storage systems that is affecting its overall function. As a result, several government websites are currently down and inaccessible,” said in a statement sent to INQUIRER.net.

The agency also denied speculations that the government websites were hit by a cyberattack or were hacked.

“No, our security is physically intact. It’s just a hardware failure,” Assistant Secretary Alan Silor told INQUIRER.net in Filipino.

Silor said the hardware failure came a week before the department was set to activate a cloud backup for the websites.

He added that the hardware has reached just reached its maximum lifespan already.

As of publishing time, government websites including president.gov.ph and even dict.gov.ph cannot be accessed.

However, some sites, including the Department of Foreign Affair’s passport appointment system are accessible.   /vvp