BIR, SEC Launch Parallel Investigations Into Taxpayer Data Breaches

Two Philippine agencies have opened separate investigations into potential cybersecurity breaches affecting their online platforms and digital records, according to official agency notices released Monday.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said it is coordinating with national cybersecurity agencies to verify claims of unauthorized access to taxpayer records, while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed an incident that potentially exposed individual profile data on its systems. Both agencies disclosed their response measures Nov. 9 following forensic reviews of their network infrastructure. (Read More: SEC Investment Watchlist)

The SEC detected unauthorized activity on its digital platforms Nov. 6. In an official statement, the commission said preliminary findings showed corporate records remained intact, no passwords were leaked and internal databases were not altered.

The corporate regulator acknowledged, however, that individual profile information may have been exposed. ^{The SEC formally notified the National Privacy Commission of the breach Nov. 9 and applied system-wide access controls, credential updates and log analyses to isolate compromised vectors.}

The BIR said it is working directly with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology-National Computer Emergency Response Team (DICT) to evaluate the validity and scope of breach claims against its tax databases. The tax authority stated that immediate protocols were deployed to safeguard taxpayer information and maintain system integrity.

The simultaneous regulatory investigations come amid heightened concern over state cybersecurity, following earlier attacks on Philippine government databases, including the 2023 Medusa ransomware attack on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. that compromised millions of individual identification records. (Read More: How to Report a Crypto or Investment Scam)

Both the SEC and the BIR advised account holders to transact solely through official portals, enable multifactor authentication, update passwords and report suspicious inquiries.

Disclosure: AI is used to assist in developing this article.

This article is published on BitPinas: BIR, SEC Launch Parallel Investigations Into Taxpayer Data Breaches

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