Hontiveros seeks Senate probe into ‘troubling’ gov’t websites hacking

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros has filed a resolution seeking an inquiry into the “troubling” series of hacking and data breach incidents involving government websites.

Senate Resolution 829 also seeks to determine if the prevailing cybersecurity measures in government agencies handling information vital to national security are sufficient and to assess the current capacity of the government to secure critical strategic infrastructure from cyberattacks and other potential threats.

“The breach of personal and sensitive information kept by government agencies endangers the safety and security of all Filipinos—leaving us even more vulnerable to increasingly nefarious schemes involving text message spams, online scams, phishing, financial fraud, extortion, blackmail, and identity theft,” Hontiveros pointed out.

She cited Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group data which showed 16,297 reports of various cybercrime cases in the first quarter of 2023, with thousands more “undoubtedly unreported.”

The recent incidents of cyberattacks in the systems of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, the Philippine Statistics Authority, as well as the House of Representatives were mentioned in the proposed resolution.

Hontiveros emphasized that the government, under the Data Privacy Act, has the inherent obligation to ensure that personal information in its systems and in the private sector are secured and protected.

In September, Senator Mark Villar filed a similar resolution which urges the Senate to investigate the cyberattacks on the websites of PhilHealth and other government agencies.

Villar’s resolution will be tackled by the Senate committee on science and technology on Tuesday afternoon.—AOL, GMA Integrated News