One of the biggest data leaks in Philippine history occurred last Saturday, 22 June 2024, when unauthorized access to Jollibee’s so-called “data lake,” where personal data of the customers of the fastfood giant are stored, happened.
Sensitive pieces of personal information, such as birth dates and senior citizen identification numbers, of an estimated 11 million data subjects have been affected.
Investigation is currently ongoing.
Incidents such as the Jollibee data breach are alarming. As we all know, identity thefts and email/text scams have become far too common nowadays.
We have read and have watched news of victims of phishing/smishing, where scammers convince victims, usually unsuspecting senior citizens who have little or no knowledge of technology, to give sensitive data such as passwords, bank account information, in guise of updating an account or getting a reward like an unexpected amount of money, but the real intent is to steal the victim’s identity and eventually, his hard-earned money.
Who among us have not received a text asking us to open an unknown link to claim a prize?
We have, in fact, a very good law, Republic Act No. 11934, otherwise known as the SIM Registration Act of 2022 — the first law signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
We expect better enforcement of RA No. 11934 from concerned agencies as two years after its signing, phishing/smishing and other cyberscams continue to remain rampant.
It is therefore not surprising that reports of data breach have become a growing concern.
In this connection, I hope companies with e-commerce platforms would prioritize customer data protection by investing and strengthening their cybersecurity defenses.
On the part of the government, we have the National Privacy Commission as the country’s privacy watchdog mandated to administer and implement the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
Meanwhile, here are some simple suggested steps to safeguard our personal data online.
- Create strong passwords – not the common passwords such as birthday – and change them periodically.
- Be cautious what to share on social media. Remember: Personal details on your profile become online footprints, which scammers can see and use.
- Be careful in using free public wifi networks. Limit your online activity, such as online shopping, online banking, etc. Take into account these are unsecured networks that hackers – like you – can enter without password and therefore they can likewise access unsecured devices on the same network.
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Dennis Ting is a former director at the Department of Budget and Management.
