GSIS probes cybersecurity breach

MANILA, Philippines — The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) on Thursday, September 12, confirmed a cybersecurity threat in one of its computers and has since started investigating whether any data was compromised.  

The social insurance institution said that its security partner had sent them a notice of the breach by a “local threat actor” at 5:20 p.m. on September 12.  

“A local threat actor had compromised the administrator account of one of our computers, as shared on their Facebook page,” GSIS said in a statement.  

The affected computer, the agency said, only contains “dummy data” for tests. However, in measuring the extent of the breach, GSIS has turned the affected computer offline. 

“GSIS is now validating the claims of the intruder in order to ensure full compliance with the requirements of the Data Privacy Act,” it added.

GSIS also assured that it is taking all necessary steps to safeguard the information of its employees, members and pensioners.

“We assure our employees, members and pensioners that the protection of their information is of utmost priority. GSIS is implementing needed measures to protect our systems and information,” the state-owned social insurance institution said.