THE Department of Justice (DOJ) disclosed on Monday that the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is now conducting an investigation into a possible data online breach involving its over 300,000 files and documents.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra expressed the justice department’s willingness to assist in the OSG’s investigation, considering that thousands of its cases are being litigated by the OSG.
“I understand that the OSG is now looking into this alleged data breach. The DOJ has not received any such information through official channels but [the department] would be ready to assist the OSG, if necessary,” Guevarra said.
While he has yet to hear from the OSG about the matter, Guevarra said he would appreciate it if the OSG will inform the DOJ of the result of its findings.
In a news statement issued on April 30, the London-based cyber- security firm TurgenSec revealed that it “became aware of a publicly accessible data store which belonged to the Solicitor General of the Philippines.”
“This breach was accessed and downloaded by an unknown third party that is not TurgenSec,” the firm disclosed.
It also revealed that “anyone with a browser and Internet connection could access it.”
The firm noted that the breach appears to contain “over 300,000 files and documents.”
“This breach contained hundreds of thousands of files ranging from documents generated in the day to day running of ‘The Solicitor General of the Philippines,’ to staff training documents, internal passwords and policies, staffing payment information, information on financial processes, and activities, including audits, and several hundred files titled with presumably sensitive keywords such as ‘Private, Confidential, Witness and Password,’” it noted.
TurgenSec also raised concern that the breach and illegal release of the documents would undermine ongoing judicial proceedings involving the OSG.
“The OSG handles thousands of cases in the Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court in representation of the government in general and of the DOJ in particular,” Guevarra pointed out.
“The DOJ therefore has substantial interest in finding out the cause of this alleged data breach and any prejudice to the interest of the government that such breach, if true, may have unduly caused,” he stressed.
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