THE House of Representatives’ website was subjected to a severe level of cyberattack.

According to House Secretary General Reginal Velasco, the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack aimed to disrupt the normal operation of the website by flooding it with an overwhelming amount of internet traffic, rendering the House’s website inaccessible to the public.

The attack started around 8:50 a.m. on Wednesday.

“This incident marks the first time our website has experienced a cyberattack of this magnitude. Within just one hour, we recorded over 53 million attacks, and by 4:36 PM, the number had risen to over 480 million,” Velasco said.

The House official said they quickly addressed the issue while the tactic to paralyze the digital platform temporarily succeeded.

“Throughout the day, our website experienced several downtimes but was promptly restored each time. Our Information and Communications Technology (ICT) team vigilantly monitored the situation to ensure that our services to the public remained unaffected,” he added.

Velasco assured members of the House and the public that no information related to the normal operations of the House of Representatives was compromised.

All institutional information remains secure, and no personal or institutional data was accessed or stolen.

Based on the report from the House ICT Director, the majority of these attacks originated from various countries, including Indonesia, the United States, Columbia, India, and the Russian Federation.

However, the accuracy of these locations may be questionable due to the potential use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) by the attackers, which can conceal their true origins.

Upon discovery of the cyberattack, the ICTS team promptly responded by placing the website in ‘Under Maintenance’ status and switching to a maintenance server to halt the ongoing attacks. This swift action allowed them to mitigate the impact and begin recovery operations.

The incident was already reported to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for further investigation, particularly regarding the use of VPNs by the attackers.

Additionally, we are accelerating the launch of a new, more secure website to prevent future vulnerabilities.

“This incident underscores the need for robust cybersecurity measures to protect our digital infrastructure. We are committed to improving our security protocols, closely collaborating with cybersecurity experts, and investing in advanced technology to guard against such attacks,” Velasco said.

“We assure the public that we are taking all possible steps to strengthen our defenses in cyberspace and are prepared to face any challenges that may attempt to compromise our digital services,” he added.