'Hacking of govt sites not dry run for poll cheating'

Even as it investigates the matter, the Justice Department brushed off speculations that the defacing of at least four government websites since December are a dry run of sorts for cheating in the automated polls this May. In an interview over radio dzXL on Friday, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera dismissed as "creative" the claims that the hacking incidents may be a prelude to rendering useless the automated counting machines to be used in May. "Napaka-creative ng ating kaisipan ... Ang hacking kung pinagpraktisan man di kailangan sa gobyerno i-hack (Those making such claims are just too creative. If you were a hacker and really making a dry run, you should not be limiting yourselves to defacing government websites)," Devanadera said. But she said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), an agency under her department, is verifying such a possibility. The NBI’s Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division (AFCCD) is in charge of investigating such online crimes. "Ang gagawa ng ganyan siguro napaka-expert nila. Ang NBI may division for these things, inuumpisahan nila ang pag-validate ng report na ito (The hackers appear to be experts. The NBI has a division for handling such cases. It has started validating these reports)," Devanadera said. The latest attack on a government website came Thursday, when the Department of Labor and Employment’s website homepage and several of its pages were defaced.

Before the DOLE site was defaced, hackers also broke into the sites of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Department of Health. Deputy presidential spokesperson Gary Olivar said Thursday that Malacañang is alarmed over the hacking incidents, and said other agencies such as the Commission on Elections are now taking precautions especially since the automated elections are only four months away. - with Jam Sisante/RSJ, GMANews.TV