House website hit by unprecedented level of cyberattack –SecGen

The House of Representatives’ website fell prey to an unprecedented level of cyberattack on Wednesday, March 13, House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said Thursday.

“This cyberattack aimed to disrupt the normal operation of our website by flooding it with an overwhelming amount of internet traffic, rendering the House’s website inaccessible to the public,” Velasco said in a press conference.

“This incident marks the first time our website has experienced a cyberattack of this magnitude,” Velasco added.

Velasco said that the cyberattack started at around 8:50 a.m. on Wednesday. He added that within an hour, the House recorded over 53 million attacks, and by 4:36 PM, the number had increased to 480 million.

He also that based on the account of the House’s Informations and Communications Technology Director, the majority of these attacks originated from various countries namely Indonesia, the United States, Columbia, India, and the Russian Federation, although these locations may not be necessarily accurate due to the potential use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) by the attackers, which can conceal their true origins.

Velasco, however, assured the public that the House had successfully addressed the cyberattack.

“The objective of this cyberattack was clear: to make our digital platform unavailable to users. This tactic temporarily succeeded, but we quickly addressed the issue,” Velasco said.

“Throughout the day, our website experienced several downtimes but was promptly restored each time. Our Information and Communications Technology (ICT) team vigilantly monitored the situation to ensure that our services to the public remained unaffected,” he added.

In addition, Velasco said that no information related to the normal operations of the House of Representatives was compromised.

“All institutional information remains secure, and no personal or institutional data was accessed or stolen. We have reported the incident to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for further investigation, particularly regarding the use of VPNs by the attackers,” he said.

“Additionally, we are accelerating the launch of a new, more secure website to prevent future vulnerabilities. We assure the public that we are taking all possible steps to strengthen our defenses in cyberspace and are prepared to face any challenges that may attempt to compromise our digital services,” he added.

In October last year, the website of the House of Representatives was also defaced by hackers.

The URL congress.gov.ph had the following message on its homepage on Sunday morning: “YOU’VE BEEN HACKED. YOU’VE BEEN HACKED. HAVE A NICE DAY.”

It was accompanied by a caricature of a laughing man.

It took almost a week before the House was able to restore its website. —VAL, GMA Integrated News