Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
The Department of National Defense (DND) ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to investigate social media pages and websites engaged in suspicious recruitment of military consultants.
“Yes we did pick up the activity. I cannot talk about it because it’s a new issue but the AFP has been given a guidance to investigate and to look into this particular modus operandi,” Andolong said on Monday, April 8.
The Manila Bulletin earlier bared that a group operating on Facebook has been actively seeking part-time military consultants “to engage in various tasks, including writing weekly reports on military life and addressing hot military topics.”
Manila Bulletin Technology Editor and Information Technology (IT) head Art Samaniego Jr. said the group has been using a Facebook page which claims affiliation with a United States-based military advertising agency.
The US agency, however, denied being connected with the group, according to Samaniego.
Samaniego also used WHOIS tools which revealed that the email domain registrar of the group and the servers associated with its domain were “located in China.”
WHOIS is a protocol used to query databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP (internet protocol) address block, or an autonomous system, Samaniego explained.
However, the group maintained that they are a US-based company, according to Samaniego.
The issue comes at a crucial time as the websites and social media accounts of several government agencies are being hacked.
AFP chief, General Romeo Brawner Jr., admitted that the military organization has already taken notice of this activity.
“We are still in the process of checking this,” he said.
The Manila Bulletin tried to contact the major service units of the AFP – the Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, and Philippine Air Force – to check if they have also monitored the cyber activity.
Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala assured that they have units that are ready to respond or thwart cyberattacks.
“We regularly update our security protocols to counter potential attacks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Navy spokesperson Commander John Percie Alcos said the Philippine Navy “is aware and monitoring this site.”
“I believe that they are not only recruiting former servicemen but also those who are still in the active service, even our civilian human resource personnel who are mostly handling research works,” Alcos said.
Alcos assured that the sailors, marines and civilian human resources of the Navy “are professional and well-trained in information security.”
“Our personnel cannot be lured into such arrangements that may compromise the Navy, our fellow servicemen, and most importantly, national security,” he stressed.
The Air Force has yet to respond as of this writing. — Martin Sadongdong
*****
Credit belongs to: www.mb.com.ph
