July 3, 2011

It's a baby boy for Regine and Ogie

MANILA, Philippines - Singer Regine Velasquez and husband Ogie Alcasid are having a baby boy.
The couple announced the gender of their baby in a variety show on Sunday after Velasquez had her ultrasound.

Velasquez said she will name the baby Timothy Joseph.

Velasquez is now 5 months pregnant with her first baby.

Alcasid has 2 daughters with his former wife, Michelle van Eimeren.

Alcasid and Velasquez were married last December 22, 2010.

Expect more hacks on PHL gov't websites -Kaspersky Labs

The recent cyber-attack on the website of Vice President Jejomar Binay may just be the tip of the iceberg —the first of more attacks on Philippine government websites, a computer security firm cautioned over the weekend.

Kaspersky Lab Global Research and Analysis Team Director Costin Raiu said that the Philippine government must implement a defense strategy against attacks, and conduct security audits on servers to find vulnerabilities.

"Given the past incidents of this kind, it is expected that the attack will consist of a DDoS flood designed to bring down the server and make it unreachable. It’s possible the confidential information will be sought after, so the defense strategies would be multiple," Raiu said.

A DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack involves overwhelming a target website with visits from different sources until the site crashes.

Raiu said it is important to have an anti-DDoS plan, which may involve increasing the Internet bandwidth to subscribing to a specific anti-DDoS service plan.

Also, he said that once vulnerabilities are found, the websites' servers must go offline temporarily to reduce damage.

"Past logs should be analyzed for previous probes which could have uncovered bugs than can now be exploited," he added.

Contingency plans

Raiu also called for contingency plans in case attacks still get through.

"Of course, a highly sophisticated targeted attack will always succeed--this is why there should be mitigation steps as well as disaster recovery procedures —such as backups, server replacement/relocation and redundancy," Raui said.

He pointed out that any attack on a government website is a message of disrespect, showing people that they are not protected by their society's leaders.

Raiu said that other than the OVP site, other government websites recently attacked by hackers include those of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Last year, the websites of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) were also hacked.

Similar attacks on Malaysia's government websites were done by a group of hackers, Kaspersky noted. — TJD, GMA News

Goals in World Cup qualifiers

By Jay Directo

There was a goal glut in Asian qualifying for the 2014 World Cup on Sunday with Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and Myanmar among those who advanced into the second round.

Malaysia scraped through despite going down 3-2 to Taiwan in Taipei, with the ASEAN champions squeezing through courtesy of away goals following last week's 2-1 triumph in Kuala Lumpur.

The Malaysians take on southeast Asian rivals Singapore in the next round.

Vietnam star Le Cong Vinh took his haul of goals in qualifying to eight in two games after the three-time Vietnamese footballer of the year followed up his first-leg hat-trick with five goals in the 7-1 hammering away at Macau.

Vietnam face a considerably more daunting tie against Asian Cup hosts Qatar next.
Laos will play China next after overcoming a two-goal first-leg deficit to progress at the expense of Cambodia after scoring twice in extra-time for a remarkable 8-6 aggregate win over their neighbours.

Philippines meanwhile set up a second round meeting with 10-time Gulf Cup of Nations champions Kuwait after defeating Sri Lanka 4-0 in Manila to sail through with a comprehensive 5-1 aggregate win.

In the first major international sporting event to be held in Pakistan since eight people were killed in a gun attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in Lahore two years ago, the hosts were held to a 0-0 draw by Bangladesh in the same city, losing 3-0 on aggregate.

Bangladesh -- who were forced to play in Pakistan after their request to relocate the match was turned down by FIFA -- face Lebanon in the second round.

In Yangon, Myanmar overcame a first-leg deficit to defeat a resilient Mongolia 2-1 on aggregate. They play Oman in the next stage.

Palestine held Afghanistan to a 1-1 draw at home, going through 3-1 on aggregate courtesy of a 2-0 away win in the first leg, and have Thailand as their next opponents.

Nepal became the first side to book their place in the second round after an emphatic 5-0 win in Kathmandu on Saturday gave them a 7-1 aggregate victory over Timor Leste.

It is a long road to Brazil 2014 for Asia's lesser sides.

Eight round one winners join 22 higher ranked teams -- including Thailand and Iran -- for home-and-away matches in the second round of the Asian qualifiers, to be played 23-28 July.
The 15 victors from those ties will join Asian giants Japan, South Korea and Australia as well as North Korea and Bahrain in the third round.

Azkals Live: PH Azkals wipe out Sri Lanka Brave Reds

Azkals Live: PH Azkals wipe out Sri Lanka Brave Reds: "The Philippine Azkals' much-awaited Sunday game vs. the Sri Lanka Brave Reds at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila ended with the h..."