Palace: Government websites safe from cyber attacks

A MALACAÑANG official said Thursday that government websites remain protected from cyber attacks amid threats from hackers protesting the implementation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

"We continue to adopt appropriate security measures to ensure the integrity of our websites," Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement.

Coloma clarified reports that a number of government websites were attacked.

An online report said that the Office of the President (www.president.gov.ph) website became inaccessible to the public as of 7:50 p.m. Wednesday, with visitors getting an error message.

Coloma said the President's website has undergone a scheduled systems maintenance that lasted for about five hours in the morning of October 3. He noted that during this period, Facebook fans and Twitter followers of the President were duly re-directed and were able to use these social media channels without any interruption.

Coloma likewise denied reports that the Philippine Information Agency website was attacked last week.

"There was no actual defacement of the PIA website and at no time was there a service disruption. In the morning of October 2, a hacker apparently got into the personal email account of one of the online editors and inserted a link that appeared in one of the posted stories," Coloma said, adding the specific issue was immediately addressed.

He said no other government websites have been hacked or defaced since the anti-cybercrime law took effect Wednesday.

Several groups had questioned several provisions of the new law particularly the online libel, which is feared to threaten civil liberties. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)