School websites under edu.ph experiencing technical problems

Several school websites under the edu.ph domain reported experiencing technical difficulties on Friday.

These included the websites of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), the University of the Philippines (UP), the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, the Lyceum of the Philippines University Manila, among others.

According to Department of Information and Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy, they were informed that there was a denial of service attack on PHNet, which handles the edu.ph domain, at 10 p.m. on Thursday.

“We contacted them. And they are now trying to resolve the issue. May Denial of Service Attack daw sa kanila since 10 p.m. last night,” Dy told GMA News Online.

“DICT-NCERT already offered our assistance to them,” he added.

According to Dy, a denial of service attack is an attempt to create millions of incomplete queries so that the “legitimate queries” will be delayed.

“Analogous to gusto mo pumila sa Jollibee kunwari, pero may 100 tao sa pila. 50 dun, hindi naman bumibili! So humahaba ang pila lalo, pero wala namang actual na transaction na nangyayari,” Dy said.

(It's like wanting to line up at Jollibee, but there are 100 people in line. Out of those, 50 aren't actually buying anything! So the line keeps getting longer, but no real transactions are happening.)

“That’s an oversimplification, but quite accurate,” he added.

In an advisory, UST announced that there were issues in accessing its university website and the MyUSTe portals.

“Rest assured that the University’s online systems are intact and will be made available once the providers address the issue,” it said in a statement.

The UP Information Development Center also advised that there may be trouble accessing the UP System and CU websites, online services, UP email and UP CU email.

“Please also note that messages to the UP Helpdesk are affected, and replies to your concerns from the UP Helpdesk are not able to go through due to this issue. Please bear with the delays during this time,” it said.

Meanwhile, the Colegio de San Juan de Letran said its Information Technology Services Department is working to resolve the issue.

Asked when the websites will be restored, Dy said there is no timeline yet. — BAP, GMA Integrated News