Vera Files, a Philippines based non-profit online news resource was put down by hackers through a cyber attack on Sunday last week. The disruption was caused twice by Distributed Denial of Service(DDoS) as soon as the news resource published a story on President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio’s holding disproportionate assets worth 100 million Peso.
According to an official statement released by Vera Files President Ellen Tordesillas, the website was hit by a cyber attack for approximately 30 minutes after it published a controversial story about Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Sara Duterte Carpio’s holding several million worth investments in the country and abroad on Sunday.
Cybersecurity Insiders has learned that DDoS attack was launched in two phases. One at 2 am early Monday and the other at 6 am the same day.
But Vera Files Editor Daniel Abunates said that the IT staff of the news resource were quick enough to bring back the operations to normal by lunchtime on Monday.
The story was published on the Facebook in Note Format and was also available on the blog of Ms. Tordesillas until the downtime was sorted out.
Note 1- Vera Files is known to provide sensitive reports which are always thoroughly sorted out in depth and in multiple formats. The journos and other scribes working for the news resource include regular journalists, students, social workers, civil society organizations and those who have served the nation in Military.
Note 2-In the year 2017, the Vera Files was accredited by the Poynter Institute’s International Fact Checking Network-a non-profit school for journalism located in St. Petersberg, Florida.
