DICT reports 19 government websites hacked during corruption protests

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) reported that 19 government websites were hacked 15. This took place on September 21 during nationwide protests against corruption.

Notably, no personal data was stolen in the tagged websites. DICT Secretary Henry Aguda listed four national agencies that were affected by the site breaches.

This included the Anti-Red Tape Authority, Bureau of Customs, DICT, and the Department of Economy, Planning and Development. The other sites consisted of local government portals.

Most of the affected pages involved training modules and complaint platforms, which were quickly restored. In addition, the agency clarified that the eGov PH App wasn’t included in the act.

The breach was rooted from EComplaints, a third-party system separate from the app’s infrastructure. Given the information, the DICT assured users that their information in eGov PH is encrypted and protected under the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

As per Aguda, over 1.4 million hacking attempts were recorded, with only four successful breaches. At the time of writing, AnonymousPH, a hacktivist group, is suspected.

The group denied involvement, with authorities now tracking a person of interest linked to the incident. We’ll update readers for more details on this developing story.