{"id":22269,"date":"2016-04-26T11:34:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T03:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=22269"},"modified":"2016-04-26T11:37:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T03:37:39","slug":"telcos-offer-security-tips-following-comelec-data-leak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2016\/04\/26\/telcos-offer-security-tips-following-comelec-data-leak\/","title":{"rendered":"Telcos offer security tips following Comelec data leak"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent hack attack on the website of the Commission on Elections has leaked the personal data of millions of Filipino voters, putting them at risk of an identity theft. To help individuals keep their data safe online, Globe Telecom and the PLDT Group have both issued tips on how individuals can protect themselves from becoming victims of identity theft and other online fraud.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is unfortunate that the database had to be freed in the wild by the hackers. We\u2019ve done what we can to block known sites that provide easy searchable access to the database but it\u2019s certainly out there now. It\u2019s even more important now for everybody, especially our customers, to be vigilant towards identity theft and social engineering attacks. We are also reinforcing changes we have made in our customer verification process to make sure nobody can abuse even further this dire situation,\u201d said Anton Bonifacio, Globe Chief Information Security Officer.<\/p>\n

According to Bonifacio, customers will benefit from these guidelines:<\/p>\n

*Do not use the leaked personal information such as date of birth, mother\u2019s maiden name, or permanent address as security verifications in various services, ranging from banking to online subscriptions.<\/p>\n

*Enable two-factor authentication for all online services as much as possible. This can be done through SMS enrollments or mobile applications. Popular e-mail providers already have this feature.<\/p>\n

* Be careful of social engineering and phishing. From calls to e-mails that are asking for more personal information \u2013 always remain vigilant. Chances are they will use the leaked information to establish trust, so better to call back the service provider or company if you do indeed have transactions with them.<\/p>\n

* Revisit social media privacy. It\u2019s better to be private. Fraudsters and hackers could use the leaked information to get more data about you. Changing pages to private and limiting the posting of very personal matters will be even more important. It\u2019s not difficult to reverse engineer one\u2019s life nowadays.<\/p>\n

*Then just as part of basic security, always be wary of links or attachments in e-mails as well as downloading of mobile applications that are not trusted, Bonifacio said.<\/p>\n

Properly manage your online passwords<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, PLDT and Smart\u00a0Communications urge customers to properly manage their passwords.<\/p>\n

According to published reports, the data breach disclosed voters\u2019 personal information such as their names, birthdates, home and email addresses, the full names of their parents and in some cases passport details.\u00a0These information can be used for identity theft and other fraudulent activities.<\/p>\n

Here are some simple, practical tips to ensure your peace of mind by properly managing your online passwords.<\/p>\n

Update your passwords. Make it a habit to change passwords regularly for all your online accounts \u2013 email, social (like Facebook and Twitter), online banking accounts among others.<\/p>\n

Make your passwords strong. This means creating passwords with a mix of letters and numbers, with a mix of capital and lowercase letters, and with symbols like \u201c&\u201d or \u201c@\u201d.\u00a0 Best to use passwords with at least\u00a0six\u00a0letters, numbers and symbols.<\/p>\n

Avoid predictable passwords.\u00a0\u00a0Like birthdays (yours, your spouses or children, etc.) Or common number or alphabet patterns like \u201c123456\u201d or \u201cabcdef\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Or, predictable words like \u201cpassword\u201d.<\/p>\n

PLDT and Smart are stepping up measures to strengthen your online security and will periodically share information that can help subscribers protect themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent hack attack on the website of the Commission on Elections has leaked the personal data of millions of Filipino voters, putting them at risk of an identity theft. To help individuals keep their data safe online, Globe Telecom and the PLDT Group have both issued tips on how individuals can protect themselves from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[4018,495,3800,3086,286,2420],"class_list":["post-22269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-comelec","tag-cybersecurity-and-cybercrime","tag-hacking","tag-identity-theft","tag-it-security","tag-password-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}