Sabotage? DOST, AFP urged to explain links to cyber attacks on alternative media websites

By Billy Begas

Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should explain why they were linked to recent cyberattacks against the websites of two alternative media organizations.

Gaite said the Sweden-based digital rights group Quirium was able to locate the “denial attacks” on Altermidya and Bulatlat from machines in the Philippine Research, Education, and Government Information Network under the DOST and an email registered to the Philippine Army in Taguig.

The report said that the “brief but frequent denial attacks” have been happening since May 18.

“This is damning evidence that the government is out to silence the press, and belies the administration’s repeated claims that they are not attacking press freedom,” Gaite said.

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic.

The most recent cyberattack against Altermidya’s website was on June 16 after they posted an article on the International Criminal Court’s investigation on the Duterte administration’s ‘War on Drugs’.

“Malinaw na malinaw ito, the cyberattacks were traced back to the government, which means it is an official policy of this administration to attack media organizations, especially those critical of the Duterte regime,” Gaite added.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)