By Katrin Anne A. Arcala
A DIAGNOSTIC REPORT by Google acquired last Dec. 12 showed that part of the su.edu.ph site is listed as suspicious.
Mark Raygan Garcia, head of the Office of Information and Publication (OIP), said that there had been attempts to hack the website. The office found out that the site contains malicious software (malware). Malware may cause identity theft, financial loss, and permanent file deletion.
Google’s report stated: “Of the 188 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 44 pages resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent… 5 domains appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site.”
The last time Google visited the site was on Dec. 11 and the last time suspicious content was found on the website was on Dec. 8.
However, Garcia assured that the case had already been addressed and the site is now safe to access.
“We’re going to have it hosted elsewhere. It simply means that the website is now with one company and we have to put it to another. And hopefully it will be back to its original state by January,” Garcia said.
Users of Safari browsers did not have problems with opening the site. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox users only have to click “ignore” or “proceed at your own risk” to be directed to the original site.
“That warning simply means that there were attempts on hacking the website and those attempts were already detected. When the system is compromised, the web search engines, such as Google, are able to detect it,” he added.
“It is something that is common in popular sites. Government websites experienced it. Even pentagon was a victim of something similar to this. It happens to everyone,” Garcia said.
