A security ‘mishap’ has resulted in millions of Filipino voters’ personal details exposed to cyber-criminals. In a 6th April blog report, global digital security solutions firm Trend Micro reported that “a massive data breach leaked the entire database of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC).”
Based on our investigation, the data dumps include 1.3 million records of overseas Filipino voters, which included passport numbers and expiry dates. What is alarming is that this crucial data is just in plain text and accessible to everyone. Interestingly, we also found a whopping 15.8 million record of fingerprints and a list of people running for office since the 2010 elections.
Many security functions in today’s Internet-based digital products available to most consumers rely on the use of personal details to authenticate users. These include dates of birth, full names, residential addresses, and other bits of information not normally accessible to the public. Fingerprints have also become a common authentication method used in newer devices and applications and will likely enter into more widespread use in the next year or two. As such, the leak of personal information on this scale cannot be taken lightly.
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What is likely to be the crown jewel of this data leak are the millions of US-based Filipino voters who will be using the COMELEC’s Automated Election System (AES). The Philippine consulate in New York City, for one, had recently implemented training seminars to prepare for the coming May 2016 elections.
For the first time ever, the Automated Election System will be used by voters in North America. Participants to the seminar included representatives from the Philippine Embassies in Washington, DC and Ottawa, as well as the Philippine Consulates General in Chicago, Toronto and of course, New York.
Because of the purchasing power Americans wield, users based in the US will likely be the primary targets of identity thieves and digital fraudsters who may even know be mining the data files posted by hackers on various download sites. The value of an American consumer is estimated to be at least ten times that of the average consumer based in the Philippines. They are also bigger patrons of e-commerce sites thanks to the greater accessibility to high quality internet services than local Filipino islanders.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
A security ‘mishap’ has resulted in millions of Filipino voters’ personal details exposed to cyber-criminals. In a 6th April blog report, global digital security solutions firm Trend Micro reported that “a massive data breach leaked the entire database of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC).”
My worry about this news is something else. It is the conditioning of the public mind. If the cheating of the administration proves to be glaring, flagrant, or nakakahiya, they now have a perfect alibi, or scapegoat: hackers.
Bautista’s Comelec does not inspire confidence at all; he whines more than he works. But, what can we expect? He is an appointee of PNoy. The same as Sereno, Leonen, and Caguioao of SC are. They are not about strenghtening institutions and pillars of government. They are about advancing the personal agenda of PNoy and the Yellows.
I believe everything Marcos said:
1) The Tasadays
2) His basement filled with piles of gold
3) We were a First World country during his term
4) We could’ve been the next Singapore
5) Imelda had nothing to do with the the stoning of the Beatles
GET REAL is really nothing but a Marcos propaganda website from the very beginning. The nickname Benign0 was a giveaway sign.
I don’t like the Aquinos, and I certainly had enough of the Marcoses. Please throw these two families to the pit of hell.
If you don’t like what benign0 has to say then why not browse porn instead?
Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
ouch haha.
Ninoy Aquino was not a Filipino citizen when he died; he was a Malaysian citizen. His passport and other personal belongings disappeared when he died (personal items of the deceased are usually in the hands of the family).
He had to pass through KL Malaysia before returning to PH to make Last Will and Testament with his bank account in KL Malaysia. That bank account was how Malaysia pays Ninoy his Treason Fee and also his under-the-table collection for Malaysia’s stealing of Sabah. The same bank account, that I call the TREASON FUND, funded the formation of MNLF-MIM and CPP-NPA in 1969, funded EDSA-1, even EDSA-2, and in building the Aquino-Cojuanco political and business empire in the PH.
Hanggang ngayon, ang kamandag nyang Ninoy Treason Fund ay patuloy na ginagamit at pumipinsala sa Pilipinas
Wow you nailed it! very impressive kind of fiction.
then mag witness ka kung totoo ang iyong alegasyon para lumantad sa isipan ng mga tao particularly sa mga Kanataan para mamulat sila sa katotohanan.
They are testing the HOCUS PCOS; if it really work…YellowTards ready…order from Aquino and Mar Roxas. Defeat them by HOCUS PCOS!!!
55,000,000 US$2.00/day Filipinos are so concerned of the data breach. So are the minimum wage working class commoners.
I just wonder why they worry or this is just a hype by the Philippine Press run by U.P. graduates.
Hey, “Wise One” YellowTard…have you ever heard of hackers? Aquino and Mar Roxas hired many computer hackers. They even are hacking my blogs…
When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.
What Benigno Aquino is Marcial Bonifacio a Malaysian Citizen who brought havoc to the Philippine Economy as revealed by the Economic Hitmen of Marcos Destruction of the Philippines.??