THE Department of Education is verifying the alleged data leak in one of the regional offices of the Department of Education, containing details about banks, information of students and teachers.
In a screenshot shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, a hacker claimed to have obtained over 750 gigabytes of data from the DepEd.
The hacker claimed that the data includes details about banks, information on students and teachers, and more.
The alleged data leak is currently being verified by the Department of Education in collaboration with the Department of Information and Communication Technology or DICT.
Education Undersecretary Michael Poa said they have instructed their field offices to examine and determine if there was indeed a hacking incident.
‘’We have instructed the field offices to run diagnostics and verify if there was indeed a hack. No report as of the moment as verification is ongoing,’’ Usec. Poa said.
On the other hand, DICT Asec. Renato Paraiso emphasized that their investigation is isolated to one regional office of DepEd.
However, he expressed doubts about the accuracy and truthfulness of the reported data leak.
Paraiso pointed out that 750 gigabytes of data are too extensive, and this is equivalent to data for ten million people which is too much if the hacker claimed that the data is only from one regional office.
‘’Imagine it’s almost one terabyte of data that’s about the size of the national government [data], much less for a regional office. So we highly doubt the veracity of the report that was circulated in the dark web,’’ he said.
‘’We’re talking about the studentry. So it’s highly doubtful for us right now,’’ he added.
At present, Paraiso is asking the public to remain calm.
He also said that the security of the DepEd system is robust, especially considering the importance of the information they hold.
Paraiso is encouraging the public to report promptly if they come across any information about a data leak or hacking.
‘’We need to report it so we can verify if the reports are true or not. Firstly, to avoid panic and unnecessary confusion among our fellow citizens,’’ he said.
