Massive data exposure puts 23 Philippine institutions under cybersecurity scrutiny

National

MILLIONS of sensitive records, including government files, student profiles and customer information, were reportedly exposed in a sweeping wave of cyber incidents involving 23 Philippine institutions, raising concerns over the security of public and private databases.

According to an intelligence assessment by cybersecurity monitoring group Deep Web Konek, the incidents were recorded from Nov. 5 to 7 and involved government agencies, military systems, universities and private companies.

Among the government institutions identified were the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Bureau of Internal Revenue, Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Transportation, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, Presidential Commission on Good Government, Philippine Coast Guard and Land Transportation Office (LTO).

Some of the largest reported compromises involved DeathNote Hackers. On Nov. 5, the group reportedly accessed 12,979 PDF files, equivalent to about 10 gigabytes, from the OVP.

The same group also reportedly accessed 19.2 million DOLE records totaling 5.74GB, internal reports and Commission on Audit files from the CICC, and 6,698 files amounting to up to 1.35GB from the Philippine Coast Guard.

Another threat actor, Happy Go Lucky PH, allegedly obtained 8GB of internal PCGG files and nearly 500GB of data containing up to 19 million resident profiles from the Department of the Interior and Local Government and Barangay Central Database.

CrimsonSec Philippines was also linked to the reported compromise of 292,424 LTO entries totaling approximately 54.11GB.

Educational institutions named in the assessment included the University of Camarines Norte, Cavite State University-General Trias Campus, Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology and the University of St. La Salle.

Reported exposures included the full academic and financial database of UCN, more than 117,000 records from CSU-General Trias, over 81,000 student records from NE-UST and more than 11,000 student profiles from USLS.

The Philippine Air Force was also flagged over the reported exposure of internal documents and records.

Private firms and public utilities were likewise identified, including the National Power Corporation, Mactan Electric Company and LBC Express, which allegedly suffered a compromise involving 20.9 million customer shipment logs.

Other threat actors named in the assessment included “sinigangmixwithgabi” and “core849.”

The exposed information reportedly included government IDs, taxpayer and corporate registration details, employee records, payroll data and operational logs.

Deep Web Konek warned that the exposures could increase the risk of phishing attacks, text scams, unauthorized financial access and identity theft.

The institutions and companies identified in the assessment are verifying the extent of the reported breaches.(MyTVCebu)