A 19-year-old hacked government websites. The password was “Admin123”
A teenage hacker breached five government websites and left the Philippines in a frenzy over the security of the Philippines’ most important networks. IT specialists managing key systems were to use the password “Admin123”.
An Asian hacker couldn’t believe it when he broke into a government website using the simplest password possible. As a result of the action, he gained access to the country’s secrets and citizens’ data. Contrary to appearances, the man means well.
Hacker broke into the government using the password “Admin123”
The Filipino hacker uses the pseudonym DiabloX Phantom. He is only 19 years old and comes from the southern city of Davao. He describes himself as a hacktivist who is fed up with the government’s current approach to cybersecurity. Many huge security problems are simply ignored by officials and network administrators.
As he says in a commentary for This Week in Asia, he was invited to a penetration test of government systems and was part of the so-called red team – a team that is supposed to find security vulnerabilities. As part of these activities, he allegedly broke into as many as five different government administration websites.
As he emphasized, in one case the basic password “Admin123” worked painfully. By bypassing security measures, the hacker obtained the private data of millions of Filipinos and took over government secrets. The man probably hopes that publicly pointing out the government’s mistakes will force the authorities to act.
Philippines powerless against hackers
It is worth recalling that the Philippines actually has an extremely serious problem with cybersecurity. At the beginning of October this year, a hacker group took over the servers of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) – the local equivalent of the National Health Fund.
As part of the ransomware operation, the criminals expected a ransom payment of $30,000. PhilHealth did not agree to the demands, so the hackers published the compromised data online. The data breach is being described as quite a disaster, affecting the lives of millions of Filipinos in the country and abroad.
Interestingly, hackers also seem to be playing with the most important organizations in the country. A well-known meme appeared on the official website of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. It was a picture from the so-called troll with a face and a message suggesting that the administrators should take the website down and fix it.
