MANILA, Philippines – The National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Wednesday said it is looking into the alleged hacking of Commission on Elections (COMELEC) data as reported by a local media publication.
In a statement, the NPC said it has issued separate orders to the COMELEC, Manila Bulletin and Mr. Art Samaniego to appear for a clarificatory meeting via teleconference on January 25 on the alleged hacking and data breach incident involving the COMELEC servers.
The NPC issued the statement two days after the Manila Bulletin published a report claiming a breach on COMELEC servers.
The commission said it received information about the report on January 8 from Samaniego, Technology Editor & IT Head of the Manila Bulletin, regarding a suspected breach on COMELEC servers wherein 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 NPC said its Complaints and Investigation Division commenced an independent investigation and issued a notice to COMELEC requiring them to explain the alleged hacking and data breach.
“The COMELEC must address the serious allegations made in the Manila Bulletin news report and determine whether personal data were indeed compromised, particularly personal information, sensitive personal information, or data affecting the same, which were processed in connection with the upcoming 2022 national and local elections,” NPC Commissioner John Henry Naga said.
“COMELEC is also directed to conduct a comprehensive investigation on the matter and submit to the NPC the results thereof no later than January 21, 2022,” he added.
The poll body earlier said it is still validating the alleged hacking of poll data.
“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,” Naga said.
Source: https://www.untvweb.com/news/natl-privacy-commission-probing-alleged-comelec-data-hacking/