MANILA, Philippines - With another election just around the corner, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has launched a “cyber-security” hotline to protect its database against hackers.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the hotline was designed to assist voters “who were potentially affected by the massive data breach” last April.
“Voters can call 525-9301 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays to Saturdays. Callers will be required to provide their names, birthdate, address, contact numbers and e-mail address,” he said.
He noted that reports on possible online security breach and identity theft could also be sent to votercarecenter@gmail.com.
Jimenez added the hotline would be available to the public starting Aug. 22 under the Voter Care Center initiative of the Comelec.
Before the May 9 elections, the official website of the Comelec was hacked twice – first by Anonymous Philippines and then by LulzSec Pilipinas – in what was said to be the world’s biggest government-related data breach.
The hackers uploaded personal information from the website’s Precinct Finder of some 52 million voters, including full names, complete addresses and passport numbers and leaked them to the user-friendly engine http://wehaveyourdata.com.
Jimenez earlier gave assurance that the Comelec had since put in place various security measures to prevent the hacking from being repeated. This includes the “hardening” of the data and putting up stronger “firewalls.”
The Comelec came up with the hotline amid preparations for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections set on Oct. 31.