MANILA, Philippines - The camp of Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III was forced to shut down the candidate's official Facebook Fan Page after hackers gained illegal access to Aquino's Facebook account and started unsubscribing the LP bet's online supporters.

A thread on Aquino's LP bet's Facebook page on Sunday said: "Our Official Facebook Fan Page has been hacked, and supporters are maliciously being unsubscribed by the hacker. We are temporarily shutting it down. Rest assured our admins are working 24/7 to restore it to normal operations."

The thread has garnered close to 3,000 comments more than 11 hours after it was posted. Some of the comments from Aquino's more than 1.3 million supporters said the incident will not deter support for the LP bet.

Others, however, said the hacking incident could be a ploy by Aquino's camp to gain sympathy for the presidential frontrunner.

The hacking incident is the latest twist in the runup to the May 10 presidential election, which is being contested by a total of nine candidates.

Curiously, the official website of Aquino's fiercest rival, Nacionalista Party bet Manny Villar, was also hacked last month.

Nacionalista senatorial bet Gilbert Remulla said the hacking incident on Villar's website coupled with the spread of a hoax e-mail on Villar's US mansion are part of an online campaign to discredit Villar. (Read: Pictures of Villar's 'US mansion' a hoax)

"From the very beginning we have waged a campaign based on positivity and principles—both online and offline. But underground elements seem to persist, and a cyberwar is being waged against us–what with the flurry of black propaganda texts and "mansion hoax" e-mails to spoofing our identity on social networks. We can now add website hacking to the list of cybercrimes being committed to take down Manny Villar," he said.

Analysts earlier said Philippine politics has plunged to ugly lows ahead of next month's presidential election as candidates take advantage of the Internet and mobile phones to smear their rivals.

Among the worst examples, Aquino has had to deal with a hoax psychiatric report claiming he is mentally ill and took drugs, while his main opponent, Manny Villar, has been accused of lying about his dead brother.

"They have reached a new kind of low," said Jorge Tigno, associate professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, referring to the mudslinging campaign tactics being employed by the presidential candidates.

In the past, those vying for the presidency in the Philippines were generally seen to be above the heated rivalries of lower-level politicians, according to Tigno.

But the dramatic rise in Internet usage since the last presidential elections in 2004 as well as the deepening Filipino addiction to text messaging has given candidates new ways to deliver messages, particularly among the young.

"Now, you have a greater role for information technology," Tigno told AFP.

"The campaigners know you have a younger set of voters. They use the Internet and cellphone texting, and that is the way campaigners disseminate doubts about an opposing candidate."

Aquino learned this the hard way after an anonymous blog posting this month carried a report supposedly from a prominent psychologist saying he had treated the politician and diagnosed him with mental health problems.

The fake report said Aquino suffered from "major disorders and learning disorders" -- reinforcing previous false rumors that he was autistic. It also said he took marijuana as a teenager.

The doctor and the institution named in the report later said the document was fake but not before it had been picked up by the mainstream press and dominated the political campaign for nearly a week.

Villar denied that he was behind the false report but he nevertheless challenged Aquino to take a psychological test to prove he was mentally fit to run the country.

Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle...account-hacked

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE) - The website of the government's main information agency, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), was hacked by a user named "7z1."

An error message was displayed whenever a user tried to enter PIA's website. Search engine Google showed the word "HACKED BY 7z1" under the title Philippine Information Agency. The agency's website was eventually restored Sunday evening.

The identity of the said user, as well as reasons for hacking the website, have yet to be determined.

This, however, took place days after a hacker, who claims to be from the People's Republic of China, demanded an apology for last week's hostage crisis at the Quirino Grandstand, where 8 Hong Kong tourists were slain.

A page from the Bulacan provincial website initially showed a statement made by user "dragons hack," who claimed to be part of a group called "Hacker Union of China/Malaysia." Flags of the said countries were also shown.

Dragons hack's remarks were written in special characters, and are displayed since Friday.

Here are some of his remarks, as translated by Google:



"Ako (ay) mula sa dakilang Republika ng Tsina. Dapat (kayong) humingi ng paumanhin sa Philippine (hostage) insidente...Humantong sa mga hostages (na) pinatay (na) responsibilidad ng inyong pamahalaan!"

"Bakit walang mga espesyal na pagsasanay ng pulis sa Pilipinas?"

On Sunday, the same page displayed a different image, but showed a similar statement:


The home page of the Bulacan provincial website, meanwhile, is still loading properly.

This is not the first time that government websites have been hacked.

Early this year, for instance, hackers defaced the home page of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) website.

Malacañang, under then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (who is now a congresswoman of Pampanga), said it has instructed government agencies to take steps to secure their websites.

Third gov’t website hit by hackers


MANILA, Philippines - Hours after Malacañang made a call to secure websites of government agencies, the website of the municipal government of Hagonoy town of Bulacan province was hacked and defaced on Monday.

It was the third hacking case reported after the hostage-taking incident last August 23 when 9 people were killed, including 8 Hong Kong tourists.

The Chinese flag and Chinese characters were splashed on a new page placed in the Hagonoy’s website, which, in one rough translation, the text said: "Do not underestimate our pain ... Hackers from China by custom group F.M.T.” The defaced page also opens with a dialog box saying, "You make me angry."

As of posting time, however, the local government’s website's original home page had already been restored.

Aside from fending off criticisms about the botched rescue, the government is also now busy securing the websites of government agencies.

"We are alerting all government agencies to review and improve security of their websites in view of the hacking of the website this afternoon," said Presidential Communications and Operations Office Secretary Herminio "Sonny" Coloma.

Coloma made the statement after the website of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), the government's main information agency, was hacked and defaced over the weekend.

The PIA’s homepage was replaced with a new page with a black background containing the message, "Hacked by 7z1", and the signature "Black Matrix Team | 0x.oday@Gmail.com".

The PIA website was eventually restored Sunday evening.

'Hactivists'

On August 26, the website of the Philippine National Police was “overwhelmed” and was shut down for several hours. Police investigation showed the attack was conducted by so-called “hactivists” from various countries who logged on to the national police’s website at the same time, causing it to become inaccessible.

Chief Inspector Felizardo Eubra of the Web Services and Cyber Technology Division, the anti-hacking unit of the Directorate for Information and Communications Technology Management (DICTM), said initial tracing of the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses showed that users from various countries logged on to the website simultaneously.

On Friday, the official website of the Bulacan provincial government was hacked by a group claiming to be hackers from China and Malaysia.

In a page inserted in the Bulacan website, the hackers demanded an apology from the Philippines for the Manila hostage crisis.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda on Monday said the websites of the government agencies hit by hackers were not secure.

“The fact that the websites have been hacked shows they were not secure,” said Lacierda.

"We are adopting best practices to lessen the vulnerability of our websites to hacking and other cyber crimes," Coloma said.

Meanwhile, government officials would not confirm if the hackers who defaced the websites of government agencies were from Hong Kong and China.

Lacierda said it was also possible that the hacking may have been done by hackers from the Philippines.

“Kung sakali, and I’m saying kung sakali, gawa ito ng Pilipino, napaka-iresponsable naman nila. Huwag naman sana nila gawin iyon. Huwag naman sana nila i-escalate iyong otherwise na hopefully nagiging normal na atmosphere ngayon,” Lacierda said.

Flooded

President Benigno Aquino III's personal Facebook account, which is linked to his official web site, has also been flooded by hate messages over the incident, with many coming from disgruntled Hong Kong residents accusing the Philippine police force of incompetence.

Aquino censored his Facebook page after Internet users ignored his appeal to stop bashing his government over its handling of the hostage crisis, banning slanderous and defamatory comments and posts.

Coloma said only slanderous postings and profanities were erased from the Facebook page.

"But those expressing their feelings -- even if they are negative -- are not being erased from the website because cyberspace should be democratic and different views are permitted," he said.

On Monday afternoon, however, Aquino’s Multiply site was again hit by multiple comments of expletives. The comments had been removed, as of posting.

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