PNP moves vs hackers

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine National Police (PNP) has become aggressive against computer hacking after 10 of its offices were hacked in June and September this year.

PNP chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome said adequate security features must be put on its websites to protect the PNP offices.

“There must be continuous monitoring of websites in order to preempt any attempt to breach security and (we must) employ additional security features,” he said.

Bartolome ordered the creation of a Technical Committee on Website Hacking and Other Related Incidents chaired by Information Technology Management Service (ITMS) chief Senior Superintendent Joel Victor Canapi.

The PNP said at least 10 of its websites, including those of the Highway Patrol Group, Police Security and Protection Group, Police Community Relations Group, Directorate for Human Resource and Doctrine Development, Headquarters Support Service, Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management, Police Regional Office 9, PRO11 and PRO13 were defaced by hackers last June.

In September, the websites of PRO9 and PRO13 were defaced.

Authorities also learned that the hackers responsible for June 2011 incidents were Turkish, Iranian and Arabian nationals and for September 2011 were Pakistanis and South Americans.

Canapi said the committee recommended the respective IT officers or designated web administrator of every PNP website to carefully review the service level agreement with the website hosting provider.