Alternative media outfits
identified two companies where the intense cyber attacks against them since
December are coming from.
Bulatlat,
Kodao, and Pinoy Weekly, as well as the People’s Alternative Media Network
(Altermidya) filed a civil complaint at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court
this morning against IP Converge Data Services, Inc. and Suniway Group of
Companies they believe are where the cyber-attacks are coming from.
“Through
the solid and thorough digital forensic investigation of Sweden-based Qurium
Media Foundation over time, it was discovered that the cyber-attacks were
coming from companies IP Converge and Suniway,” Altermidya national coordinator
Rhea Padilla said.
According
to their respective websites, IP Converge Data Services, Inc. is the country’s
first cloud services provider while Suniway is an internet services provider.
Exposed IP addresses
Padilla
said the digital forensic report revealed that despite hiding behind a Virtual
Private Network (VPN), one of the attackers exposed their real IP addresses
when they accessed the website without turning on their hidden IPs.
In
another instance, one of the attackers also revealed his IP address when he
used his Samsung Android phone to check the websites of alternative media
groups under attack.
The
exposed IP addresses, she added, may easily be traced to IP Converge based on
the findings of Qurium.
Meanwhile,
Qurium learned that the infrastructure of networks being used to launch the
attacks belongs to Suniway, which holds business addresses both in Hong Kong
and in the Philippines with two Chinese national listed as among its officers.
“The
user agents who conducted the attacks using devices within the premises and
under the control and supervision of Defendants IP Converge and Suniway are
unidentified at this point,” their complaint said.
First-ever complaint
Padilla
said their civil complaint against cyber-attackers is the first ever in the
Philippines.
“This
is definitely a first and it will serve as a testament that we will neither be
cowed nor will we allow these cyber-attacks to continue,” Padilla said.
The
complainants were assisted by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers.
Since
December 2018, alternative media sites have been subjected to sustained
cyber-attacks in the form of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
DDoS
refers to the malicious attempt to overload the server of a website, aimed to
shut it down.
Padilla
said this kind of attack “denies legitimate readers of access to truthful
reports.”
“Plaintiffs
have reasonable ground to believe that there are more than one of them, each
one targeting a particular organization,” their complaint said.
Padilla
added that launching a cyber-attack with this kind of magnitude and immensity
is impossible without the knowledge of the companies.
The
alternative media outfits maintained that these relentless cyber-attacks are
politically-motivated.
They
called on the two companies to reveal their real clients.
“We
believe these attacks are state-sponsored and are part of the Duterte
administration’s attempt to stifle press freedom in the country. It seems cyber
censorship is one of the administration’s tactics to make way for an open
dictatorial rule,” Padilla said.
The
filing of the complaint coincided with the 25th anniversary of the internet in
the Philippines.
In March 29, 1994, the first ever internet message were sent between the University of San Carlos in Cebu City and Syracuse University in New York. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)