DAVAO CITY – Residents here on Thursday, April 21 expressed worry over the search engine www.wehaveyourdata.com which made their personal information available to the public.
Ivy Tupas, a student of the Ateneo de Davao University, said their birthdays, telephone numbers, precinct numbers and even the passport information of her mother and sister can be found.
“Even their complete address in Japan was shown,” she said.
“The information is made accessible in the website and this is a big threat because some people can take advantage of the data,” said Tupas.
Zen Paraba, an internet marketer from Davao City said he is not a registered voter, but his family’s information were also made available online through the said search engine.
Paraba said it is worrisome for those whose private information were exposed if the data will be used “by big corporations who knows their ways”.
A group of hackers who identified themselves as LulzSec Pilipinas said in a post at wehaveyourdata.com that they have “dumped the database of about 70 million of Philippines voters and have published all that at archive.org.”
“So we thought that it would be fun to make a search engine over that data,” the post reads.
“Maybe at least now (the) government will start thinking about security of citizen’s personal data,” it said.
Comelec statement
The Commission on Elections allayed fears of the public that they are resolving the hacking of the data from the Comelec website which leaked voter information online.
”The Comelec is doing everything we can to resolve this matter at the soonest possible time,” said
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.
Jimenez said Thursday afternoon that he was informed of a website that had been put up “that essentially made the data allegedly copied from the Comelec, searchable.”
He said the National Bureau of Investigation Cybercrimes Division is now looking into the website, but the Comelec has yet to receive a copy of their findings.
Renato Reyes, secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said: “The search engine wehaveyourdata.com just underscored the severity of the Comelec data leak by allowing anyone to search a name and acquire basic information regarding that person.”
“This is a massive violation of our right to privacy, happening just weeks before the elections,” Reyes said in a Facebook post.
He said the data leak “allows anyone to target voters through harassment and intimidation by accessing personal information.”
“Identity theft is also a serious concern. As taxpayers, we reserve the right to sue Comelec for failing to protect these important personal information,” he said.
Comelec’s advise
Meanwhile, Jimenez said they advise the public not to use the hacker website to avoid being exposed to the dangers of identity theft.
“It can be used by the hackers to steal your information. We also cannot rule out at this stage that this may be an attempt by the hackers to monetize the data they claim to have,” he said.
But Reyes said “while the hacker group Lulz Sec is responsible for the breach, Comelec should also be made accountable for failing to protect our personal data.”
“The leak has a chilling effect on private individuals. It also raises questions on the ability of the Comelec to carry out secure and reliable automated elections,” he said. (davaotoday.com)
