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 yesterday 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. (Raymund B. Villanueva for Kodao Productions)
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