Saturday, April 18, 2009

PRC Hacked Again?  




Last April 1 (April Fools Day), it was known that the main page of the PRC website was defaced by a group of hackers known as "linuXploit_crew". This time another group of hackers known as "Fatal Error Group Br" had successfully break into the site by inserting an index page (see attached screenshot).

As of this writing, the index page is still there.

Updates:
(7/26/2009): It is more than 3 months from this post but the index page still exists and not yet removed.
(10/21/2009): This was reported in media last 08/22/2009 but still no action was done.

Posted in by tech-a-byte | 0 comments

Hack Poll Machines = P100M  

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Alan Peter Cayetano has filed a resolution setting aside P100 million as an incentive to anyone who can convincingly demonstrate the weakness of the automated poll system.

Cayetano, at a press conference Friday, said that if any IT expert can establish that the system to be used in the 2010 polls is not secure from fraud and tampering, "Comelec should cancel the contract, save the P11 billion and sue for damages the contractor in the event of such successful hacking."

He said he would rather revert to the manual counting of votes if the computerized system would lead to wholesale cheating.

Cayetano said the resolution, which he would file on Monday, was in response to a statement by a Comelec official challenging cyber security experts to test the system for weaknesses.

"The most effective way to test if indeed a system is credible, reliable and tamper-proof or fraud-proof is to offer a sizable prize to whoever can hack and convincingly show the weaknesses of the system," Cayetano said in his draft resolution.

"To make the said incentive system work, there is a need to authorize the Commission on Elections to set aside the amount not exceeding P100 million to be utilized as a prize money for the said successful hacker," he said.

If the system is successfully hacked, the Comelec will then be authorized to cancel the contract and sue the winning bidder.

Despite repeated assurances poll automation will significantly curb cheating, Cayetano said there are fears it might actually induce a "bigger and more sophisticated method of election cheating if the system is vulnerable to manipulation."

Source: Inquirer.net

Posted in , by tech-a-byte | 0 comments

Thursday, April 2, 2009

PRC Website Defaced  



Yesterday, the official website of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) was defaced by a group of hackers known as "linuXploit_crew" on the afternoon of April 1, April Fools Day.

I managed to have a screenshot of the defaced site (see above) at around 9:30PM, showing a blank page (no images) with words "Hacked by linuXploit_crew =) by DeRf-, Hualdo and _serial_killer_". I checked its subpages and I found out that its still intact thus only the main page was compromised.

As of noon of April 2, the site is still unaccessible. But as I have visited the site (its 3:05PM on my PC's clock), the site has been back to normal.

This surely mean that some .gov.ph sites are vulnerable to hacking.

Posted in by tech-a-byte | 0 comments

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