THE National Privacy Commission has ordered the Commission on Elections to explain the alleged hacking and data breach of its servers. The order comes at the heels of a news report of the Manila Bulletin last week.
“Comelec is also directed to conduct a comprehensive investigation on the matter and submit to the NPC the results thereof no later than Jan 21,” NPC’s emailed statement reads.
In an emailed statement yesterday, the data privacy body said it has issued separate orders to Comelec, Art Amaniego Jr, and Manila Bulletin to appear for the clarificatory meeting via teleconference on Jan. 25 on the alleged hacking and data breach incident involving the Comelec servers.
“NPC received information from Samaniego, Technology Editor and IT Head of the Manila Bulletin, regarding a suspected breach on Comelec servers were an estimated 60 gigabytes of data, which possibly contain personal information and sensitive personal information, were allegedly accessed and downloaded by a certain group of hackers,” the statement reads in part.
The commission ordered Comelec to address the serious allegations made by the Manila-based newspaper and to determine whether the personal data, processed in connection with the upcoming 2022 national and local elections were indeed compromised.
“Rest assured that the NPC does not tolerate any act in violation of the Data Privacy Act including negligence in implementing organizational, physical, and technical security measures on personal data processing systems, whether in government or private institutions,” the commission’s statement reads. (CBC)
