House probe into massive data breach sought
MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers from the House of Representatives are calling on the information and communication technology committee to investigate the reported massive leak of personal information from the databases of several law enforcement-related government agencies.
"Even though these agencies denied that there were data breached or leaks in their system, it is still important for Congress to probe this issue because it involves national security and the privacy of our citizens," said Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers Partylist), who is among the Makabayan bloc members that filed House Resolution 931.
The resolution calls attention to the “national security” risk involved in the exposure of government records and hacking of government databases revealed by vpnMentor cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler in April.
At least 1.2 million records or 817 gigabytes of data were reportedly exposed for around six weeks when hackers breached the databases of the Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), among others.
The exposure of private records is concerning “especially with the implementation of Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System Act, Republic Act 11934 or the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act, and the proposed law on E-Governance/E-Government,” the resolution read.
This casts doubt over the capacity of “the government, and even the telecommunication companies, to handle and be entrusted with their personal information, including sensitive personal information,” the resolution added.
Days after the alleged breach was reported, the NBI issued a statement saying that its databases were not affected by the leak according to the bureau's own initial investigation. The PNP and the BIR have also denied allegations of any data leak.
This was after the National Privacy Commission—the agency responsible for protecting personal data in the Philippines—met with agencies to check for signs of an alleged leak of personal information from their databases.
Department of Communications and Information Technology Secretary Ivan Uy has also said that the exposure of information was due to “a leak, not a hack,” of the PNP's recruitment portal.
The Senate on April 22 began its own inquiry into the data breach. — Cristina Chi
- Latest
- Trending
