The Senate on Wednesday, August 21 confirmed that its website was hacked.
In a statement released by the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau (PRIB), the spokesperson Arnel Bañas said the usernames and logs extracted from the Senate Sharepoint site “are merely the names or accounts used for uploading public documents.”
Bañas said the logs include basic metadata, such as the upload date and file size, which do not pose any significant security risk.
“We, therefore, confirm the statement of DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) Assistant Secretary Renato Paraiso that the incident is not cause for alarm,” Bañas said.
He said access was gained over documents such as transcripts of committee hearings, journals of plenary sessions, and other legislative documents which are intended for public consumption.
“No sensitive or confidential data was affected. In fact, the Senate, upon request, grants access to anyone who wishes to download these documents,” he pointed out.
Nevertheless, he said the Upper Chamber will continue all efforts to ensure that its website remains secure and protected by robust cybersecurity measures.
Earlier, the DICT disclosed that a hacker group named DeathNote Hackers was able to infiltrate the Senate’s website.