By Paulo Loreto Lim

In the aftermath of “Comeleak,” the data breach of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that occurred during the 2016 national elections, the National Privacy Commission (NPC) said they will be hosting the first Data Protection Officers Summit, in order to tackle the issue of data security.
NPC Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro explained the summit will look into innovations and different approaches in defending against the violation of data privacy rights and data breaches, along with protecting the general public.
He also discussed the guidelines for government agencies in dealing with data privacy concerns, including appointing a data protection officer (DPO), acquiring an officer to promote privacy rights for clientele, running a privacy impact assessment, compiling a privacy manual, and enforcing security measures against data breaches.
In a release by the NPC, Liboro explained the agency is pushing for DPOs to be more proactive.
“The biggest lesson we have learned from the ‘Comeleak’ breach is, at the end of the day, we have no better recourse, really, than prevention and vigilance, which are essentially roles of DPOs,” he said. “They are the people’s first line of defense against privacy violations inside an organization, and the NPC is here to help.”
Earlier this year, the NPC blamed Comelec chairman Andres Bautista for “Comeleak,” claiming he violated the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
According to the NPC, the breach exposed the private data of over 55 million voters./WDJ