Cyber war: Palace websites attacked

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda

Chinese hackers were at it again, and this time they attacked the presidential websites.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on Monday said that at 4 p.m. on Sunday, the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) “noticed a significant spike in traffic with malicious URL requests from forged user-agents being channeled to the Official Gazette website (www.gov.ph), PCDSPO (www.pcdspo.gov.ph) and to the Presidential Museum and Library website (www.malacanang.gov.ph).”

Lacierda said the spike in traffic from these “forged user-agents’’ caused the Palace websites’ servers to “momentarily lag.’’

“We determined that this was a denial-of-service attack,” Lacierda said. “Information gathered through our data analysis indicated that the attack originated from IP addresses assigned to Chinese networks.’’

Lacierda said the PCDSPO would maintain its websites, but added that “we can expect temporary disruption of service while the attack is [going on].’’

Last week, groups claiming that Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal belonged to China hacked the website of the University of the Philippines.

Filipino hackers hit back, attacking several Chinese websites and stating that the shoal belonged to the Philippines.

The Philippines and China remain deadlocked at Panatag Shoal, with their maritime vessels refusing to budge in a standoff now on its 14th day.

Originally posted: 8:27 pm | Monday, April 23rd, 2012