THIS has something to do with the recent firewall breach into Tanauan's HOPE account.
THIS has something to do with the recent firewall breach into Tanauan's HOPE account.
This is a growing concern among local government units and even national government agencies whose latest victim is no other than a very crucial office, the Bureau of Customs.
Unlike Tanauan's HOPE, the BOC has so much to lose, in billions of pesos aside from failed transactions.
Nevertheless, HOPE equates or even surpasses it in terms of importance to the masses as it deals with the delivery of necessary services to the people, especially now that we all are in the middle of a pandemic.
As such, Ms. Terry Bunio, chieftain of Tanauan's information bureau fired off a warning on their official page:
"Muli po naming ipinagbibigay alam na ang pahinang TANAUAN CITY'S HOPE ay na-hack po simula pa noong Pebrero 24, 2021. Anuman pong mga inilalathala sa naturang pahina ay hindi po opisyal na pahayag ng tanggapan ni Mayor Angeline "Sweet" Halili. Para sa mga programa, anunsyo at "updates" mula sa ating "Local Chief Executive", tumutok lamang po sa kanyang BAGONG FACEBOOK PAGE, ang Tanauan City's Hope in Action. Maraming Salamat po!"
Aside from the regular PIO page of Tanauan City, HOPE is the info vehicle of mayor Sweet Halili for her constituents in need of help from the Jan. 12, 2020, Taal phreatic eruption to the present and prevailing health crisis that we have.
To hack into it, and post unauthorized information and announcements could be a disgrace of unimaginable proportions to stakeholders.
Say, for instance, the hacker or hackers, with all their sinister plots to confuse ordinary mortals of Tanauan, post(s) an info saying mayor Sweet through her HOPE page is giving away P10K each family affected by the Taal eruption sus, chaos would surely ensue pronto.
That's a simple but clear and present danger hackers can inflict and do harm to a rather peaceful and pro-people organization like Tanauan LGU.
HOPE handles the mayor's pro-people programs and projects, oversees and spearheads the distribution of "ayudas" and other important programs and projects.
To break lockdown monotony and discover new talents, HOPE also launched in November last year a hybrid singing contest among Tanauenos.
Without a live audience and cheerers, it was held at the city hall's auditorium and broadcast live via HOPE's FB page.
But for whatever intention the hacker(s) may have in mind, Tanauan, including other LGUs of Batangas province must, at this point in time, prepare to counter a bigger attack, especially on its administrative databases.
In this era of online transactions, no one is safe anymore. And the only option is, to never let our guard down.
Email ismaelamigo@yahoo.com .