'Limited' data affected in cyberattack —PSA

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Friday said hackers compromised “limited” information in the database affected by the recent cyberattack.

The PSA said it coordinated with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group, National Bureau of Investigation, and National Privacy Commission to probe the data breach that targeted its Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS).

The CBMS is a data-gathering system at the local level which serves as basis in targeting households in the planning, budgeting, and implementation of government programs geared towards poverty alleviation and economic development, such as the flagship Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

“Based on the investigation, the links posted by the bad actors lead to limited data taken from the CBMS Management Information System,” the PSA said in a statement.

“Leads for the identification of the bad actors have been provided to the PNP and the NBI for further action. The PSA will also work with partners to ensure the perpetrators of this incident are brought to justice,” it added.

On Thursday, lawyer Eliezer Ambatali disclosed the PSA system had been hacked, leading to a data breach of their CMBS. He said the PSA learned about the data leak through a Facebook post of a user who allegedly has the concerned files.

Ambatali also said the post contained some links to a drive that contains CBMS files and other links that may contain malware.

The DICT earlier said a local hacker may be behind the hacking.

Meanwhile, the PSA said the investigation confirmed that the data related to the Philippine Identification System, the Civil Registry System, and more than 100 other PSA censuses and surveys were safe from the breach.

The hacking of the PSA database came following the ransomware attack on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

Other government agencies that fell victim to hacking were the Department of Science and Technology and the Philippine National Police, the DICT added.—LDF, GMA Integrated News