By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
Kodao Productions
Alternative media outfits identified two companies behind the intense cyber attacks against them since December.
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 behind the cyber-attacks.
“Through the solid digital forensic investigation of Sweden-based Qurium Media Foundation, we were able to unmask companies IP Converge and Suniway as those behind the cyber-attacks,” 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.
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 are assisted by by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers.
They are asking for a symbolic one peso each in civil damages.
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.
“They had the gall to continue the attacks despite the fact that it has been widely reported in the dominant media,” she added.
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 this is part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s attempt to stifle press freedom in the country. Cyber censorship is one of Duterte administration’s tactics to make way for his 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. (Kodao.org)
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