BACK in late March, the Commission on Election’s website was hacked and its database was then leaked online. According to a Philippine Star news report, the database file was about 340 gigabytes big. That database was filled with information of about 70 million voters that are now available to the public.
There’s a website already that you can use to check if your name is on that leaked database. Go to www.wehaveyourdata.com and find out.
I did.
And my name’s on that leaked database.
I don’t know really how to feel about that.
One thing’s for sure though, I do not like the fact that our government’s website can easily be intruded into by foreign elements and data be taken from it. We all give our government our information -- names, birthdates, addresses, ID numbers and whatever else they feel like asking from us -- and it’s easily taken away. In this day and age, information security is a top priority. Information privacy is must.
If this is the level of ease that a group of hackers can infiltrate Comelec's website, I’m already afraid. I’m beginning to think if information security is even being taken seriously by those in the government. Are they really? After this incident, I’m having clear doubts if they actually do.
In a CNN Philippines report, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said that "no sensitive information was compromised during the hacking."
"Walang sensitive information dito, in other words. Hiwalay yung website na gagamitin natin para sa eleksyon, especially for results reporting."
Even if it were that, the fact remains that the website was hacked and data was stolen. My beef here is data security. How secure are the data that we provide our government? What kind of assurances do we have that out government is steps ahead of the blackhats? Do we even have that kind of assurance?
Is our government shoulder-to-shoulder with the world in terms of data security and protection? Is our government putting serious thought and action in keeping our data safe from evil hands? Can we really trust government with our information? Or we just don’t have a choice and just pray that they do their job right?
Questions. Lots of it.
Are there real answers?