DOST reports data leak involving OneExpert portal

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 13) — The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said some personal information that “resembled” those from the site OneExpert was compromised following a data leak incident late in August.

In a statement on Thursday, the DOST said they learned about the security issue when the Philippine National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-PH) reported the incident on August 31.

It said that a compromised account may have been used to access the portal.

According to the DOST, the OneExpert portal is a “publicly available registry of Filipino experts, aimed at enhancing access to their services and expanding the reach of science and technology assistance to clients within the country.”

The DOST said it immediately deployed appropriate actions and beefed up the portal with additional security measures.

“The website’s normal operations were restored soon after,” it said.

However, the DOST said some information—such as names and email addresses of technical experts—were posted on social media platform Facebook on Sunday, Oct. 8.

“While this incident may cause concern among the affected individuals and the public, we would like to assure everyone that no sensitive personal information has been compromised,” it said.

The DOST assured the public that it would boost its information systems.

The National Privacy Commission said it received no notification of compromised data from the DOST.

Other government agencies that suffered from data breach incidents include the Philippine Statistics Authority and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.