Websites of UP, UST, other Philippine schools down due to domain issue

Several schools in the Philippines, including the University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Adamson University, University of the East, and Polytechnic University of the Philippines, experienced technical difficulties accessing their websites on Friday, January 24, due to an issue with the edu.ph domain.

The Philippine Network Foundation, Incorporated (PHNET), the registry for edu.ph domains, stated that servers handling the domain experienced a "heavy load" starting at 10 pm on Thursday, January 23, with resolution being "slower than usual." PHNET president Horacio Cadiz confirmed the issue lasted until 9 pm Friday when more servers were deployed, and websites became accessible again by Saturday morning. Cadiz reported the traffic was "more than five times what we normally get."

PHNET is a consortium created with support from the Department of Science and Technology and university representatives to connect Philippine schools to the internet. Institutions must register with PHNET to use the edu.ph domain. Schools like Ateneo de Manila University and STI College, which use the .edu domain, were unaffected.

Department of Information and Technology Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy stated that PHNET experienced a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, and DICT offered its National Computer Emergency Response Team to assist. A DDoS attack aims to overwhelm a website with simulated traffic, a tactic previously used against news sites like Rappler, Vera Files, and ABS-CBN News.

Affected universities confirmed they are coordinating with PHNET. They noted school emails and learning management systems like Canvas and Blackboard remained accessible. However, users on carriers like Globe and Smart may experience problems accessing some online systems.