Saturday, July 23, 2011

Hacker group strikes again, wishes Aquino good luck at SONA

After attacking the website of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) Friday, a hacker group hit another government website early Saturday, and left a message for President Benigno Aquino III.

The group, calling itself PrivateX, attacked the site of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), then wished Aquino good luck in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) this coming Monday.

A screenshot of the FDA website after it was attacked by a group that hacked the OVP website. GMA News

PrivateX, the hacker group that attacked the OVP website Friday, hit the FDA website the next day and left a "good luck" message to President Aquino for his State of the Nation Address on Monday. GMA News

“GoodLuck to SONA PNOY," the group said in a popup message that greeted visitors to the FDA website before dawn Saturday. PNOY (short for President Noy) is Aquino’s nickname.

It was not immediately clear if the message was a taunt to Aquino as the hack came a month after MalacaƱang hinted it will make a security review of government websites.

The idea to review security stemmed from attacks on government websites by the hacker group Philker.

Last June 14, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the National Security Adviser “is studying the creation of a task force to undertake a security review of government websites."

In Saturday’s attack on the FDA website, visitors were greeted with a series of popup messages similar to those in Friday’s attack on the OVP website.

The messages in the FDA attack included “Sorry, not intended hacked... i
swear.PrivateX," “guess who?rhodzx labzx" and “I will be always here..~MJM~."

But in some cases, the popup messages triggered “VBS malware-gen" alerts from antivirus software, indicating the possibility that malware may have been planted on the hacked site.

After clicking on the popup messages, visitors to the FDA site were then redirected to a web page where the hackers expressed support for the AntiSec movement.

The AntiSec movement, started by hacktivist group Anonymous and joined by Lulz Security, seeks to attack government and corporate sites and leak their information online.

“We do support Antisec movement that originated with the hackers Anonymous and Lulzsec," PrivateX said in the redirected site on Pastehtml.com.

It “assured" the FDA site administrator that no data was taken during the hack, but added government “needed" the attack.

“We are not trying to destroy government websites but you need this," it said.

The group even wished nursing board examinees “good luck."

Visitors trying to leave the site were also greeted with a popup message saying “see you again." — LBG, GMA News

Source: GMA News


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