Gen. Benjamin Acorda, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), has ordered the boosting of cybersecurity of all data down to the police stations amid the series of data breaches on government agencies.
Acorda issued the order to the Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) during a command conference at Camp Crame in Quezon City where the series of hacking incidents were discussed.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the Chief PNP wants to ensure that all police data are well-protected, considering the value of the information in terms of personnel information and anti-crime-related data.
“Cybersecurity was among those tackled during the command conference and the Chief PNP wants the ACG to boost the cybersecurity of all PNP offices from the National Headquarters down to the police stations,” said Fajardo.
Earlier, it was reported that among the data that were compromised were from the PNP Forensics Group, particularly on the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) data system, and the recruitment portal of the Police Recruitment and Selection Service (PRSS).
“The ACG is now investigating to determine if the data that were allegedly leaked would somehow compromise the integrity of the data system ng Forensic Group, particularly its DNA data system,” said Fajardo.
“On the part of the previously reported breach on the recruitment portal of the PRSS, itr was determined that there was no breach happened but nonetheless, the instruction of our Chief PNP is to boost the cybersecurity,” she added.
Right now, Fajardo said there are police IT experts that have been visiting all police units to conduct vulnerability test to determine what system connected to the internet is vulnerable to hacking.
“They are boosting the security of both the hardware and the software,” said Fajardo.
Earlier, a group of hackers breached the data of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) and threatened to leak all the information it obtained if a large sum of money would not be paid.
The website of the House of Representatives, on the other hand, was also hacked at least twice in the past few days.