(Screenshot of hacked TESDA web site)
This report cannot be taken lightly: the hacking, and defacement of a 5th government website:
Hackers of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Web site, however, took on a bolder approach by leaving a message that seemed to mock the upcoming automated elections.
“Ano ba gagamitin sa Election? Blade server? Juniper Firewall (what is going to be used in the elections? Blade server? Juniper firewall)?” the message read.
Before Tesda’s, hackers had also victimized the Web sites of the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
The hacked Tesda Web site also showed a black and white illustration of a man giving the “dirty finger” supposedly directed against several “abusive” military and police units.
A pair of bulging eyeballs also followed the pointer anywhere on the page, and background music was also set up on the site’s second web page to which it automatically transfers.
Aside from the derisive reference to the May elections, message of sympathy to a slain communist rebel and a potshot against an alleged abusive police officer also replaced the original contents of the site.
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/181239/hackers-deface-5th-govt-web-site-mock-automated-polls
Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar :
Of course we are concerned. This is not just a problem in our country, this is not just something that has happened just recently, it’s happening all over the country so this is certainly something that we are sensitive to as a matter of information policy within government,.
For the first time I agree with Mr. Olivar.
The aspiring geek that I am, this writer employs an off the shelf site and internet surfing protection suite and previous visits to the Malacanang site had identified it as an ‘unsafe site’ while also having firewalls protecting access to my own system and website.
Given the larger and certainly more critical roles of the government site, one wonders how the government’s own computer infrastructure is protected at all not just from hacking but cyber terrorism.
Don’t doubt it: the five attacks on the government websites are just test missions.
The hackers of the TESDA site did not only deface it. they dubious also made the site automatically jump into a second page, which featured a background music and job announcement supposedly from VenturesLink, one of the partners of Smartmatic-TIM in the automation of the elections
I’m sure Malacanang and COMELEC must now realize what’s up: a direct threat to the all-important servers for the automated election being made to crash resulting not just in failure in the transmission of mission-critical election data, the tallies plus back-end information.
Yes, that’s what we are looking at: the failure of elections.
Popularity: 5% [?]
As I had stated ealier. No computer in the internet is safe from a
determined Hacker. These Hackers are Geeks. Most grew up with the
computer. Most are self taught Programmers. They treat the computer
and the internet as toys. It makes them high. If they can hack on the
most difficult and most secured computer.
If the administration employed these people. We are surely at risk.
Hyden your closing point hits the proverbial nail on the head: what if this was/s an inside job with the patina of deniability?
There are two Maginot lines with regards electronic hacking of credit cards or voting results. The first line are those firewalls and procedures to prevent hackers from entering “the premises”. That first line of defense is at times breached, as Hyden had said.
The next item is about “getting away with it”. This requires invisibility across years — perpetrators being invisible as they do the thievery AND THEN A PERFECT COVER-UP, perpetrators remaining invisible and being free years after the crime has been committed. For credit-card-theft to the tune of $25,000 bucks or less, the chase is not worth the effort and insurance covers the banks that have been hacked. For thievery of national elections …. well, Pinoys-in-Pilipinas will have to decide if it is worth the effort (of time, money, careers, livelihoods) of righting a wrong, so time will tell after all.
Note: general rule about hacking thievery. One does not call attention to oneself and definitely one does not hang around after successfully breaching the first line of defense. One just finds another target.
Hyden: Almost everybody knows that the way to make money in the stock market is to buy low, sell high. The number of people who actually turn $100 into enough money to buy a 7-year old Toyota Camry — how many?
Almost everybody knows that a great way to make money in real estate is to use politial connections to change the zoning of Hacienda Luisita or Paranaque ricefields from farmland to subdivisions. How many people actually make millions of pesos from that knowledge? There are thousands of Diliman Iskolar Nang Bayan already but how many of these bright folks have gotten to do it?
Then, there is hacking. A third of those who know how to hack can eventually find and hack into a poorly protected site to leave garbage behind. But the number of hackers who can “make something positive happen”, like do dagdag-bawas or change school grades from Flunk to Bery-Gud, different story. Just think about it — how many hackers can actually become a millionaire from their hacking skills? Leave garbage, yes, make money, no, that is a whole different ballgame. It takes additional “special powers” (intelligence and discipline) to elevate one’s game from garbage-dumper to “making things happen according to pre-specified business objectives”. Very few hackers do this, it takes too much time and it is like doing nine-to-five government work! The identities of the good ones (real names, or pseudonyms and definitely their modus operandi) are already known by Interpol or by the Visa and Mastercard business/technology communities.
Hacking is an art to these Geeks. The harder they hack a
computer in the internet. The more high they get. There are
hacker employed by the U.S. government as counter- hackers.
It will take a good hacker to stop a good hacker.
i.e. an example of our “IT” support services
Support Services and what they stand for:
The capabilities provided by the Computation Directorate are enhanced by providing the services necessary to enable world-class science.
Customer and consulting services offer technical solutions to maximize user productivity. Remote and local users can telephone or e-mail hotline staff for assistance in using software and hardware or in troubleshooting codes. Online resources provide general information, as well as detailed tutorials and up-to-date status on all of our machines.
Comprehensive technical expertise in IT services and solutions ensures responsive and effective customer support to enable Lab missions. Centralized messaging, desktop and server support, and stable and robust networks enhance and facilitate communication. Standardized tools and processes improve the efficiency and productivity of users.
Information Protection Support efforts ensure compliance with Department of Energy orders relating to computer, network, and telecommunications security. The Computation Directorate provides assistance and advice on technical issues relating to cyber security, as well as a response team to assist in threat analysis, incident response, and cyber security forensics.
Also, an IT group(s) can setup a point of entry to the Server(s), to what we call “Accept Website Certificate” which allow user[that would be you] to gain access to the server, by accepting the certificate. Voilà…!
By doing so, it logs you into the system and gaining your IP address into the systems at the same time.
All I can say is that hacking a public website is much easier than hacking the planned Virtual Private Network infrastructure Comelec/Smartmatic will be using on May 10. I suggest that before instilling fear about hacking nightmares in the upcoming automated elections, please try and find out what technologies will be deployed first. I think you really don’t know what you’re talking about. I understand your concern but trying to hype something unfounded is not really doing us any good.