NPC begins probe of second ‘Comeleak’

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has begun investigating the stealing of a Commission on Elections (Comelec) computer in Lanao del Sur, the second large-scale breach of data of the country’s 55 million registered voters.

The Comelec has also begun abiding by the NPC’s Feb. 13 order to wipe out the national lists of registered voters kept by the more than 1,000 municipal elections offices nationwide, Executive Director Jose Tolentino Jr. said in a joint briefing.

Tolentino admitted that it took two weeks for the Comelec to report the Jan. 11 incident in Ate town of Wao, because it was initially treated as a simple robbery.

Privacy Commissioner Raymund Liboro said the incident will be treated independently from so-called “Comeleak,” which saw the leak of voter data after the hacking of the Comelec website last year, .

Although Tolentino said the data were encrypted, Liboro noted that no encryption system can be considered 100% hack-proof. RAM/rga