BY RONALYN V. OLE
THE recent findings by Sweden-based Qurium Media Foundation confirm our suspicion that cyber-attacks against Bulatlat and Altermidya are apparently politically-motivated and state-sponsored.
Qurium’s forensic investigation published on its website reveals that the attacks have been traced to the Philippine military with the identity “acepcionecjr@army.mil.ph Taguig Red Server.”
Globally, the “mil” top-level domain is reserved for the military establishment.
Not surprisingly, the URL “https://www.army.mil.ph” is the official website of the Philippine Army.
The IP used for the attacks has been leased to the Department of Science and Technology by private firm IP Solutions.
Qurium also found the attacker IP in the Edits of Wikipedia for the article “Chief of Army (Philippines)” and many others related to the Army.
We are not surprised by the results of the recent digital forensic. State agents and the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) have consistently labeled us as communist fronts for pursuing journalism for the people.
Still, we are angered that taxpayers’ money is being spent to bring down our website and to deny our readers access to our reportage.
We in Bulatlat and our colleagues from other alternative media organizations are striving each day to bring stories from the ground especially in this time of the pandemic.
We view these efforts by state security agents as an attack on press freedom and the people’s right to information.
We demand the Philippine military and the Department of Science and Technology to stop the cyber-attacks and respect our right to publish.
We call on private IT firms not to allow their infrastructure to be used in violating press freedom.
We thank our allies in Qurium for continuing to mitigate the attacks, and ensuring that we remain in cyberspace.
We will continue telling the truth from the perspective of the marginalized and oppressed.
We enjoin our colleagues in the Philippine media, and our audience to continue asserting press freedom. (Bulatlat.com )
