The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Thursday it is looking into possible suspects and angles behind the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data breach. In a statement, DICT spokesperson Assistant Secretary Renato Paraiso said an investigation is ongoing into the cyberattack on PSA’s Community-Based Monitoring System. “Kasalukuyang iniimbestigahan ng DICT ang logs upang malaman ang saklaw ng data breach at kung may personal identifiable information na maaaring na-kompromisa (The DICT is investigating the logs to know the extent of the data breach and whether personal identifiable information were compromised),” Paraiso said. The DICT said the attack on PSA was not a ransomware attack as what recently happened to PhilHealth. “Kasalukuyan itong nagsasagawa ng mga nararapat na hakbang upang mapanagot ang threat actor na siyang responsable sa data breach (We are taking steps to make the threat actor responsible for the data breach accountable),” he said. Paraiso said they are looking at all possible angles of the data breach and asked the public to refrain from sharing posts or links that apparently contain PSA data samples. “Ang nasabing links ay may malware at sinoman na mapapatunayan na nagpakalat ng data ay maaaring maparusahan alinsunod sa Data Privacy Act of 2012. Pinapaalalahanan ang lahat na magsagawa ng cyber hygiene measures at manatiling alerto laban sa mga phishing at scam attempts (These links contain malware and anyone proven to have spread the data could be charged with violation of the Data Privacy Act of 2012. We remind everyone to carry out cyber hygiene measures and remain alert against phishing and scam attempts),” he said. Earlier, the PSA said the national ID and the Civil Registration System were not affected by an alleged data breach. On Oct. 7, information about an alleged data leak involving a system managed by the PSA was posted by a certain actor on social media. The PSA said it immediately activated its Data Breach Response Team and launched an investigation.
Source: Philippines News Agency
