MANILA, Philippines — The Senate confirmed on Wednesday evening that its website was hacked, but said the incident was “not cause for alarm.”
In a statement, Senate spokesperson Arnel Bañas said the usernames and logs extracted from the Senate Sharepoint site are “merely the names or accounts used for uploading public documents.” The information includes basic metadata, such as the upload date and file size, “which do not pose any significant security risk.”
“Access was gained over documents such as transcripts of committee hearings, journals of plenary sessions, and other legislative documents which are intended for public consumption,” Bañas said.
“No sensitive or confidential data was affected. In fact, the Senate, upon request, grants access to anyone who wishes to download these documents,” he added.
The chamber’s spokesperson said the Senate will continue its endeavors to maintain the security of its website.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology earlier bared that a group that goes by the name DeathNote Hackers infiltrated the website of the Senate and extracted employee usernames and logs.
READ: DICT says Senate website hacked