Bayan Muna lawmakers want House probe into cyberattacks vs alternative media
MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers from the Bayan Muna party-list on Monday called for a House of Representatives inquiry into cyber attacks against independent news sites Bulatlat.com, AlterMidya and human rights alliance Karapatan’s website.
Reps. Carlos Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat (Bayan Muna) filed House Resolution No. 1918 calling on the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology to look into the said cyberattacks that are linked to government agencies.
“This is not the first time that alternative news sites and progressive organization websites were subject to cyberattacks,” the lawmakers said, noting that Bulatlat.com, Kodao Productions and Pinoy Weekly were hit by DDoS attacks in December 2018.
“The latest digital forensic findings tracing the attack to military and even science agencies seem to affirm the news agencies’ suspicions on the origins of the attack,” the lawmakers said.
“The use of government resources to finance such attacks to news sites and human rights organizations is condemnable. It is a threat to free speech and democracy, and, a blatant misuse of public funds, thus, making it also illegal. It bears all the hallmarks of a tyrannical campaign versus government critics and media,” they added.
Last week, Bulatlat, AlterMidya and Karapatan cited an alert from Sweden-based Qurium that noted “brief but frequent denial attack.” It also said a machine from the Department of Science and Technology ran a vulnerability scan against bulatlat.com on May 18.
Qurium added that a closer look into the IP address and firewall also revealed an email address registered to the Philippine Army in Taguig.
The DOST however denied that it was involved in the reported cyberattacks and explained that they allow some of their IP addresses to be used by other government agencies.
Still, AlterMidya and Bulatlat asserted that the department should look into the use of its IP address. They said in a joint statement last week: "We call on the agency to conduct its own investigation on the use of their IP, make its findings available to the public, and do its part in stopping the cyberattacks apparently perpetrated by the Philippine Army.” — Kristine Joy Patag with reports from Xave Gregorio
- Latest
- Trending
