Philippine Government Websites Hacked Again

Defacing a website is a form of hacking and it seems that people have done it again. Malacañang is up to it again because there are several government websites that have been defaced just a couple of days ago.

Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas Chua III of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) was tasked by the palace to investigate this incident in the 5 government institutions that were affected.

The first one was the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the last one was the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). All of them were defaced and there are still no leads of who had done these activities.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said that the palace only wanted to know how these hackers were able to infiltrate the government institutions website and put an end to this mess that happened also a couple of months ago. There must be a permanent solution but no one knows why this is still done on the sites.

Malacañang wants CICT to issue recommendations as soon as possible so this would not happen again. They say that the next world war will be in cyber space and we must be ready for it. Oh my oh my let’s put up our firewalls and encrypt them! =)

Dad's New Toy!

There are tons of files in the Internet that can be easily accessed by simple downloading programs like TORRENT. I know you may have used this application once or twice so you could get music torrents, movie or free software applications gradually or easily seeded and leeched as their terms for sharing. It has proven beneficial for people who could not download things in a single sitting. I was trying to do the same for games on my PSP console and it is taking me quite a bit of time since I like titles from way back.

Now I have to also download music files for our media adapters so I can play and hookup my songs from a server and broadcast them wireless to any place in your house. It is a pretty neat gadget from a networking company and I tried it out just for kicks in the laboratory. I liked what it had so I also bought one for my Dad. I am setting it up so all the hardships normal people encounter while installing this media adapter also was on my list throughout the weekend. It was nice when I finished though because the only thing that I had to attach on the unit is just the speakers and power chord. Imagine all the music on my laptop is playing everything in the house. Dad was impressed and that is important. After all I bought this for him.

Maybe next time I will have to purchase the one with videos. Then a media server for GAS (Gadget Acquisition Syndrome) affected people like me!

Gun Ban Arrests 47 Peeps!

Sorry for the pic, I meant GUN BAN not TOP GUN! LOL

The Gun Ban in the Philippines started January 10th of this year.

Three out of the 47 people who were arrested for violations was dealt with in court by the Philippine National Police. In a press conference I watched thru ABSCBN PNP Deputy Spokesman Inspector Kimberly Gonzales said that they will be investigating the other ones also and file the corresponding charges as well. There are 5 police men, 3 soldiers, 3 government officials and 36 civilians all in all.

The area of Calabarzon or Region 4A Police had the most number of arrests numbering to 17 and there are 15 guns that were confiscated. Next is Metro Manila where 9 were arrested, 8 in region 6 and 4 in region 2, 3 in region 5 and 2 in regions 12 and 13. One arrested also in regions 1, 8, 9, 11 and ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

This happens every time the election nears in the Philippines but people still forget about it.

Now who’s next?! LOL

Are You Safe?!

There are pretenders among us and there are those who do not get caught. Just yesterday, I was trying to access my public email address and there was a notice from the provider that my account may have been compromised. I was surprised because at this day and age where portals like them spend thousands of dollars advertising that they are fully secured come to a point where they are vulnerable to attacks like these. I am extremely disappointed about them suddenly making my email a spam bot. It was troublesome because everyone suddenly emailed me back disgruntled that I was doing adult email spamming when all along someone else was using it other than me. A few days ago before that, there were people calling my friends asking for money; telling them that I was in a serious accident and needed it for operation and check up. It was a good thing they know the MODUS OPERANDI of these criminals and never fell into their trap. In a span of a month, I got to be twice a victim of identity theft. It was definitely time to make necessary actions to secure myself from these unscrupulous individuals. I really thought I was safe.

Entities like LifeLock Command Center could have helped me eliminate this from happening. But I am 10,000 miles away from the US right now. With professionals and former hackers helping me out on securing data when I was in data base management, it was really easy for me to manage networks at work. The difference is; they should have employed people who could have been better at this. I shall reclaim my identity and change all my codes now. I will not let them win! Be alert!