Data breaches in government

THE public has been warned: take preventive measures against fraudulent activities following the data breach that hit the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) recently. The public must be concerned as the personal information leaked, which possibly includes full name, birth date and sensitive personal information may be used by cybercriminals to assume one's identity to commit fraud. The National Privacy Commission (NPC), in its initial assessment, reportedly found that the leaked database particularly includes the personal information of senior citizens.

The PhilHealth data breach was followed by a breach into the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) as the lead implementing agency of Republic Act 11315 or the "Community-Based Monitoring System Act." Apart from the personal information of target beneficiaries, the CBMS is designed to collect sensitive personal information related to education, health, housing, sanitation and others.