The Philippines may have suffered its worst-ever government data breach barely a month before its elections. Personal information, including fingerprint data and passport information, belonging to around 70 million people is said to have been compromised by hackers. The Philippine Commission on the Elections (Comelec) saw its website defaced at the end of March. The Anonymous Philippines group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said it sought to highlight “vulnerabilities” in the system, including the use of automated voting machines that will be used on 9 May.
A second hacker group called LulzSec Philippines is believed to have posted Comelec’s entire database online several days later.
Comelec claims that no sensitive information was released, according to multiple reports.
However, cybersecurity firm Trend Micro believes the incident is the biggest government-related data breach in history and that authorities are downplaying the problem. “Every registered voter in the Philippines is now susceptible to fraud and other risks,” it said in a report.
Full Article: Philippines elections hack ‘leaks voter data’ – BBC News.