Manila - The Philippines said alleged Chinese hackers attacked three websites maintained by President Benigno Aquino's office yesterday.
The attacks came shortly after the government said it would raise its concerns with the United States over an increasingly tense territorial sea dispute with China.
Aquino's office, in a statement, said a "significant spike in traffic with malicious URL requests" flooded the president's official gazette (www.gov.ph) and two other websites (www.pcdspo.gov.ph, www.malacanang.gov.ph) run by his communications team.
"Information gathered through our data analysis indicated that the attack originated from IP (internet protocol) addresses were assigned to Chinese networks," the statement said.
The attack caused a "temporary disruption of service," the statement added.
Monday's attack came three days after hackers claiming to be from China defaced the website of the Philippines' top government-run university to assert their country's claim over South China Sea.
Local reports said a group of Philippine hackers calling itself "Anonymous" allegedly retaliated by hacking two Chinese government websites.
Philippine Foreign Ministry spokesman Raul Hernandez earlier Monday condemned the cyber attacks and called on hackers from both sides to stop the online war.
"We denounce such cyber attacks regardless from which side they are coming from," Hernandez said.
"We think they are counter productive and only add to the tension. We call on both Filipino and Chinese netizens to be more responsible and encourage dialogue rather than discord," he said.*AFP
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