OVP website falls to multiple hacker attacks in 1 day

One month after being defaced, the website of the Office of the Vice President fell victim to several attacks by hackers Friday morning and afternoon. While the site was restored before noon following a hacker attack, it was defaced again in the afternoon, apparently by the same group calling itself PrivateX. In one of the group's afternoon attacks, visitors to the site after 2 p.m. saw the home page replaced with an anime image, with music playing in the background.

Some visitors were greeted with a popup box indicating the attack came from PrivateX. On occasion, visitors after 2 p.m. Friday would also see a distorted version of the home page, with the "Home" link replaced by the line "TROLLLLL ALEEERT HURAAAAH." Initial attack Before dawn Friday, the OVP site did not appear to be defaced, with the two popup boxes only indicating its security has much room for improvement. "(S)till vuln?fix it," read the message on the first popup message - apparently referring to the vulnerable security of the site. Once a visitor clicks on the "Ok" button, he or she will be taken to a second popup message that reads, "Hacked by PrivateX." A visitor can get to the OVP site only after clicking on the second popup page. As of 9 a.m. Friday, the hackers put up a third popup message before loading a page bearing their logo and playing music. "Sorry VP, Please Educate Them," read the first popup message. A second popup message read, "We are PrivateX." A third popup message read, "Hoi Hoi to you! :D miho :D" Once all three messages had been clicked, the visitor is taken to the home page, which was defaced with a logo of the group PrivateX. The group even left behind a message to media claiming it is not the Filipino group Philkers or even hacktivist group Anonymous. "We are not Philkers, We are not Anonymous.. We are PrivateX.. Media.. don't associate US," it said. 'Truth prevails' The home page was then replaced with a page with a white background and the group's logo, with music playing in the background. "One Truth Prevails... Nothing was harmed except your integrity," read the message a the center of the new page. At the bottom of the page were "shouts" to parties that included Philker. There were also "Filipino" names mentioned in the "shouts." The website, however, appeared to revert to normal as of 11 a.m., with no sign of the two attacks hours earlier. June attack Last month, the OVP website was attacked by a Filipino hacker group supposedly dedicated to exposing vulnerabilities in Philippine websites. Last June 20, visitors to the OVP website were greeted with a popup message, "Hacked by Blackrain," before the OVP page could load. A second popup message would appear, seemingly greeting a certain Miho. "Hello to Miho! hoi! hoi!" it said. Clicking on the second popup message will bring the visitor to the defaced OVP website - the image of the Philker hacker group. Philker, which attacked other government websites, claimed it is not trying to damage the site but is getting attention to vulnerabilities of the site. "We are not trying to damage you. We only want to help protect our country's cyberspace by doing what seems to be the most efficient way to get everyone's attention. May this deface serve as a reminder that you always have to look out for intruders. No matter how intelligent and competent your computer personnel are, there will be unethical hackers that are constantly working on breaking in your security," the hackers said in their message. Philker's first apparent victim was the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute website, last June 13. It struck again June 16, hitting the site of the Food and Drug Administration. The attack came despite the government's disclosure of a plan to review the security of government websites following the attack on the PNRI site. Philker earlier said that while it and online "thieves and terrorists" are "cut from the same cloth," its difference is that "we have good intentions." It said it aims to elevate the Philippines' cyber culture and to "point out and correct the vulnerabilities of Philippine websites," to "protect them from unethical hackers, fraud, false propaganda and other people with malicious intent." It also hinted at future break-ins of other sites, leaving behind a note similar to the international hacktivist group Anonymous. — RSJ, GMA News