The Philippine Statistics Authority clarified that there has been no breach in the national ID database and the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys).
In a statement, PSA dismissed the claims that a data leak occurred in the national ID system, which holds all the personal information of Filipino citizens including their addresses, mobile numbers, and biometrics data.
“As the central authority on official statistics, and the implementing agency of civil registration and National ID system, the PSA takes such allegations seriously and immediately investigated the claims in the said posts,” the agency said.
“Based on the initial assessment, the PSA found no leak in the National ID database,” it added.
It also reminded Filipino citizens on the internet to “remain vigilant of unverified information circulating online.”
The PSA also said that it will conduct a further investigation into the alleged data leak in the national ID system and assured that measures are in place to ensure its security and integrity.
This statement came after a cybersecurity tracker account Deep Web Konek posted “inaccurate information regarding the Philippine Citizen ID, purportedly shared on a hacker forum.” The post has been deleted following the verification.
Last year, the PSA faced a data breach in its database but assured that PhilSYS, the Civil Registry System, and more than 100 other surveys and censuses were safe and unaffected.
READ MORE: PSA confirms data breach spares PhilSys, civil registry
Data breaches have been starting to plague government agencies’ databases anew with the latest being that of the Department of Science and Technology’s servers.
Two terabytes worth of data, including research plans, designs and schematics, were reported to be compromised, according to the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
The DICT has taken action and "are currently engaged with DOST to bring back their services ASAP, and to improve our detection and incident response capability."
"We also already alerted our contacts in the NBI, and the security establishment about a local group who has claimed responsibility for the attack," it added.