MANILA—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is feeling sorry over another case of alleged data hacking involving the leakage of the voter information.
“I apologize for this continuing attack on your privacy and assure the public that the Comelec is doing everything we can to resolve this matter at the soonest possible time,” said Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez in a statement.
He added that they received a report on Thursday on the supposed existence of a website, titled “Philippines, we have your data” with the data allegedly copied from them.
The supposed hacking incident comes after the poll body’s website was defaced almost a month ago.
In the said website, the hackers claimed that the database contains a lot of sensitive information of voters supposedly sourced from the Comelec when LulzSec Pilipinas recently hacked the Comelec website.
“The database contains a lot of sensitive information, including fingerprint data and passport information. So, we thought that it would be fun to make a search engine over that data,” they said.
The hackers added that the publication of the leaked data in a public website aims to make the government realize the importance of the security of citizens’ personal data.
In the said webpage, the users are simply asked to type their full name before clicking on the search button, which would then enable one to view personal information such as birthday, precinct number, civil status, resident barangay, and fingerprint codes, among others.
Jimenez noted that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Cyber Crimes Division is still looking into the said website and its supposed voter information contents.
“The Comelec has not yet verified the accuracy of the data the hackers claim to have copied and the investigation is ongoing,” he added.
With this, the poll body official advised the public not to make use of the said website or else risk further damage.