SENATORS expressed alarm on the recent series of hacking on government websites from Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the House of Representatives prompting them to call for an immediate investigations on the matter.

Senator Grace Poe said the government should not take this sitting down and should immediately act to avoid future cyber security threats.

“The DICT and concerned agencies must put a halt to what is turning out to be a hacking spree of government websites,” Senator Poe said in a media statement.

Poe further said that important government records, as well as sensitive data could compromise the country’s security.

” Data breaches also jeopardize personal information of the people, whose own accounts may be subjected to hacking or unwanted exposures,” She further said.

Poe further urged Departments and agencies to invest in strong cyber security infrastructures to safeguard public records.

” Hindi pwedeng business as usual at maghintay na lang sa susunod na biktima ng data breach. Kailangan matigil ang hacking at mapanagot ang mga salarin,” she said.

Senator Risa Hontiveros for her part filed a resolution PSR No. 829 calling for the appropriate Committee of the Senate to conduct an investigation to ensure that personal information in information and communications systems in the government 1qand in the private sector are secured and protected as required by the Data Privacy Act, Republic Act No. 10173).

She further said that there is a need to protect and safeguard the integrity of computer, computer and communications systems, networks, and databases, and the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and data stored therein as contained in the Cybercrime Prevention Act (Republic Act No. 10175).

In her resolution Hontiveros said 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 messages, spams, online scams, phishing, financial fraud, extortion, blackmail, and identity theft.

In the first quarter of 2023, Hontiveros said that the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Groupr eported that it had received a staggering 16,297 reports of various cybercrime cases, with thousands more undoubtedly unreported.

Hontiveros questioned the sufficiency of prevailing cybersecurity measures in government agencies handling sensitive information vital to national security.

She said there is a need to assess the current capacity of the government to secure critical strategic infrastructure from cyberattacks and other potential threats.

Philhealth suffered a cyberattack from Medusa Ransomware, with hackers gaining access to its online systems and demanding $300,000 (P17 million).

On October 7, 2023, the National Privacy Commission (NPC), stating it “will leave no stone unturned in its investigations

On October 12, 2023, Psa announced that “bad actors” had accessed its Community-Based Monitoring System, which also contained personal and sensitive personal information as well as the recent cyber attack against the Lower House.

Earlier, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian called on all government agencies and the private sector to beef up their protection against cybersecurity threats.