After Wednesday hack, DBM website still down

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Thursday, April 26, announced that their official website (http://www.dbm.gov.ph) would be inaccessible while it undergoes a “security audit” in light of Wednesday’s attack on the website.

In a statement, DBM Secretary Florencio Abad said that while crucial information in the website have remained secure, the department would be “taking additional measures to reinforce the security of our servers and prevent future attacks.”

The DBM also said that the website was under attack twice on Wednesday—the first time at around 2:15 in the afternoon and again at around 10:00 in the evening. The first attack resulted in the defacing of the website by hackers claiming to be Chinese.

The second attack resulted in a denial-of-serving error that left the site inaccessible.

In an earlier statement released right after the first hack of the website, Abad said that the department had yet to determine the culprits behind the attack.

“We are issuing this statement to caution other government institutions against similar attacks that may be launched against their online systems,” said Abad in the statement.

The DBM had a “soft launch” of their revamped website just last week. The website was “designed to be more user-friendly, navigable, and interactive for web users and visitors,” the department said. The department also noted that the switch to a newer platform was “fortunate” since it opened them to less security risks than their previous content management system. – Rappler.com