MANILA, Philippines, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Hackers in the Philippines have defaced a government Web site, the fifth such attack on such sites in a month, officials said.
Hackers left a message on the government's Technical Education and Skills Development Authority site mocking the country's upcoming automated elections, GMANews.tv reported Sunday.
"What is going to be used in the elections? Blade server? Juniper firewall?" the message read.
The hackers had previously victimized the Web sites of the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, National Disaster Coordinating Council, and Department of Labor and Employment, GMANews said.
Philippine government officials expressed worry over the security of the May automated elections.
"Of course we are concerned," presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said. "It's happening all over the country so this is certainly something that we are sensitive to as a matter of information policy within government."
Olivar urged the Commission on Elections and other agencies to take the necessary precautions to secure their Web sites.
The commission says safeguards are in place to protect election results from hackers. The automated polls would operate on a "virtual private network," it says, making it difficult for hackers to defeat the system's security.
