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'Traffic increased exponentially' to House website after hacking--IT exec

Philippines | National

'Traffic increased exponentially' to House website after hacking--IT exec

By Ellson Quismorio

At A Glance

Director Arnold de Castro, head of information technology (IT) in the House of Representatives, confirmed on Tuesday, Oct. 17 a huge surge in the number of visitors to www.congress.gov.ph after Sunday's hacking.

House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The House of Representatives can credit last weekend's cyberattack for the spike in popularity of its website.

Director Arnold de Castro, head of information technology (IT) in the House of Representatives, confirmed on Tuesday, Oct. 17 a huge surge in the number of visitors to www.congress.gov.ph after the hacking.

"Dahil nga big deal yung pagkaka-attack sa website natin, syempre everybody became interested. Ano ba? What happened? Is it OK?"

(Because the attack on our website was a big deal, of course everybody became interested. What happened? Is it OK?)

"Kaya nag-increase ang traffic natin yesterday (Monday) exponentially. Mapapansin niyo din siguro yung iba, hindi makapasok," added Castro.

(That's why our traffic yesterday increased exponentially. You might have noticed that the others couldn't get in.)

ALSO READ:

https://mb.com.ph/2023/10/17/house-website-taken-down-again-2-days-after-hacking

Asked if the deluge of website visitors was an act of hacking, the House official answered in the negative.

"It does not necessarily mean these are the hackers. Puwedeng mga nag-uusyosa lang itong mga ito at tinitingnan lang ano bang nagyari doon," he said.

(These could be just curious people who want to know what happened.)

On Sunday, Oct. 15, the House website, www.congress.gov.ph, was hacked and defaced. It was then voluntarily taken down.

It came back online Monday, Oct. 16, but with restrictions. On Tuesday, the House said it had to take down the website gain, this time due to "suspicious and unusual activities".

Related Tags

House of Representatives Hacking

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