PSA taking extra steps to protect the PHL ID system from data breaches

To avoid data breaches, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) had created procedures that would to ensure the safety and protection of data encoded in the Philippine Identification System (Philsys), agency spokesperson Robert Paguia said on Friday.

"We are already in the Phase 1 of implementation. We are training the government registration officers so all those who will be on board will be knowledgeable with securing, collecting and protecting information," explained Paguia.

"We are conducting a Privacy Impact Assessment test right now. We just had a short consultancy for the Privacy Impact Assessment and the Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration testing. We'll also be conducting that on a regular basis."

PSA is also taking measures to develop features and prevent the falsification of the Philippine national ID.

"While the law just provides for the security testing QRcode, Quick response code, we're also looking at other features of the Unified Multipurpose card to be embedded in the Phil ID so as to protect the creation of fake IDs," said Paguia.

To further build security and protection for the information, Paguia said that the PSA was coordinating already with numerous organizations such as the National Privacy Commission.

Paguia was also confident that they could protect Philsys data given that neither the Social Security System, nor the Government Service Insurance System had suffered data breaches.

On August 6, 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippine Identification System Act, establishing a national id system that centralizes all personal information of Filipino citizens and resident aliens to authenticate their identity in all government transactions. — DVM, GMA News