14 DAY TRIAL // An Anonymous-affiliated hacktivist collective called PrivateX has breached and defaced a number of seven (possibly eight) Filipino government websites as a form of protest against a new cyber bill. The attacks have taken place on the day on which the country celebrates its independence.
According to GMA News, the list of targets includes the Philippine Anti-Piracy Team (papt.org.ph), the Senate Electoral Tribunal (set.gov.ph), and the City Government of Mandaluyong (mandaluyong.gov.ph).
The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (pnri.dost.gov.ph), the Department of Health (smokefree.gov.ph), Office of the Ombudsman (omb.gov.ph), the National Food Authority (nfa.gov.ph) and possibly the website of the Department of Justice (doj.gov.ph) have also been affected.
All of the aforementioned sites have been altered to redirect their visitors to a domain controlled by the hackers. This is where they’ve posted their protest message against the cyber bill.
“In the light of our past resorts, our organization stood still with its goal of proclaiming security in Philippine's cyber culture and in the midst of the events, we have witnessed the efforts of our good authority into constituting a cyber bill, in which as we have observed has good intentions, but a little loopholes over some matters (sic),” they wrote.
The hacktivists fear that in its current form, the bill could be used as “a tool of censorship” which could pose a threat to freedom of expression.
“We're not against the government's intention to combat fraudulence, related forms of it and other serious cyber crimes, but we're absolutely against its provision that has something to do with the internet's freedom of expression (sic),” they added.
Finally, they claim that no information has been stolen or destroyed on the affected servers.
This is not the first time when PrivateX hackers deface the official website of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI). Back in January, the same domain was altered to host an image posted by the hacktivists.
At press time, some of the sites still directed their visitors to the hackers' domain. Others have been taken offline. The website of the Department of Justice is the only one that appears to be functioning properly.