Philippines Bureau of Internal Revenue investigates alleged data leak

The Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is investigating reports of an alleged data breach involving approximately 10 million individual taxpayer records and 500,000 corporate records. The claims, attributed to a threat actor known as Happy Go Lucky PH by cybersecurity monitoring group Deep Web Konek, suggest that stolen information could be used to facilitate impersonation scams targeting businesses and individuals.

The BIR has not confirmed whether a breach occurred or the exact scale of the compromised data. The agency stated it is treating the matter with urgency and is coordinating with several government bodies, including the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the National Computer Emergency Response Team (NCERT), and the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group.

The National Privacy Commission is also working with government agencies to verify the reported leaks. Under Philippine privacy regulations, organizations are required to notify regulators and affected individuals within 72 hours of discovering a breach. The BIR has advised taxpayers to conduct transactions exclusively through official channels and stated that no immediate action is required from the public at this time.