Hackers add hidden pages to government sites

MANILA, Philippines – Hackers gained access to several government websites Tuesday, November 13, but not in any way average users would notice.

Unlike previous hackings of government sites, the hackers this time did not deface the front pages of the affected sites, nor did they take down any of these pages. Manila Bulletin Tech Editor Art Samaniego Jr. was first to notice the hacking. On Twitter he posted the following tweet saying that a number of sites were affected including those of the MMDA, DOST, DOLE, NFA, and the PNP. 

More .gov.ph sites hacked. Including MMDA, DOLE, NFA, PNP mmda.gov.ph/about.htm

— Art Samaniego Jnr (@artsamaniego) November 13, 2012

Rappler checked the sites reportedly hacked and saw nothing altered. But it appears that hackers were able to gain access to the servers of the sites in question to upload additional pages. On the MMDA page, hackers created an about.htm page not linked to in the front page of site. This page, signed by Legion, has since been taken down. 

Hackers also uploaded a page on the DOST site. The page was signed by blackrain with a greeting sent out to several other hacking groups, namely PrivateX and Anonymous, as well as D4rkb1t, who was behind the hacking of the GMA News Online website and Twitter account back in 2011. 

– Rappler.com