THE Supreme Court said it has found no evidence of data breach or compromised sensitive data in a hacking incident reported by a group that monitors dark web activities in the country.
The breach made public by Deep Web Konek allegedly exposed sensitive legal data of over 13,000 records, including names, case details, and payment information, from the Judicial Electronic Payment System (JePS).
“The Supreme Court and its service providers launched an immediate investigation and, as of this afternoon, found no evidence of a breach or indication that sensitive data was compromised,” the SC said in a statement yesterday afternoon.
“The Court will continue to investigate further, employing the right amount of redundancy by approaching the investigation from many angles. As a precautionary measure, and although regularly done, we will do another round of Vulnerability and Penetration Testing (VAPT) assessment and have asked our providers and partners to do the same,” it added.
The High Court said it would conduct another external review of its cybersecurity systems even as it assured the public that in its current efforts to digitize court processes, it has always given priority to cybersecurity.
“We have taken the necessary precautions in terms of training, access, and the use of the needed applications and hardware. We have layers of in-house and external cybersecurity. We are aware that hacking data from institutions such as the Judiciary is tempting. We remind the public that our systems are professional, state-of-the-art, robust, and capable of identifying and tracing the sources of any form of attack,” it added.
The SC also reminded the public that any attempt to gain unauthorized access or compromise its systems, as well as releasing sensitive and private data without proper authorization, are criminal acts.
In disclosing the alleged breach, Deep Web Konek identified a hacker group known as “Grep” behind the incident.
Among the records, according to Kukublan Philippines that were leaked, were “assessment numbers” linked to legal cases and applications, personal details of individuals involved in legal cases, case categories and types, payment statuses and dates related to the processing of legal cases.
Kukublan is the media arm of Deep Web Konek.
Last week, Deep Web Konek also reported that a group of hackers who identified themselves as DeathNote Hackers breached the Senate’s information technology system.
The same hacker group was also reportedly behind the hacking of the website of the Bureau of Customs early this year.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology confirmed the two earlier hacking incidents.
