‘Leaked database of 55 million Philippine voters contains sensitive data’

In a hack that took place on March 27, the data of 55 million Filipinos was stolen and then placed online. This is a database with sensitive data on registered voters, which belongs to the Philippine Election Commission COMELEC.

Security company Trend Micro has conducted an investigation into the hack, which reveals that it concerns personal data. This is in contrast to a committee spokesperson’s claim that it was not sensitive data. For example, the data dump contains the fingerprints and passport data of 1.3 million Filipinos who are abroad. In addition, there are also 15.8 million other fingerprints and information about persons who have run for election for the parliament.

According to Trend Micro, only parts of the database was encrypted and the data could have a major impact on the elections that will take place on May 9. Also, the data poses a risk to all registered Filipino voters as it could be used for phishing and other forms of social engineering. The Election Commission website was initially taken over by “Anonymous Philippines,” after which another group called “LulzSec Philipinas” put the database online, reports The Register.

The leak would be the largest government data breach in history. Reports also surfaced recently that the data of 49 million Turkish citizens became available online, but it is suspected that it is old data that has already been leaked several times. The original hack of the Turkish data would therefore have taken place in 2010 or 2009. The Turkish government has launched an investigation.