PCSO chief brands data breach report as ‘fake news’

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Friday dismissed as false the claims circulating on social media that its database had been breached by a group of hackers.

“This is fake news. There was no breach nor any successful attempt to hack the systems of PCSO,” PCSO General Manager Mel Robles said in a statement.

He further clarified that the agency had not reported any security incidents to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) because “nothing has happened.”

The controversy arose after a group calling itself Philippines Exodus Security posted on Facebook on Wednesday, alleging that thousands of profiles of lotto winners from 2016 to 2025 had been compromised.

The post claimed that sensitive personal information, including names, addresses, phone numbers, IDs, and winning numbers, had been leaked.

“They should’ve taken security seriously. Too late now,” the group stated in its post, describing itself as a “non-governmental organization.”

However, Robles dismissed the allegations, saying the supposed hacking was orchestrated by individuals “who are out to besmirch or cast doubt on the integrity of” PCSO games.

“While there have been numerous attempts in the past to hack our system coming from all over the world, our digital defenses are holding out and remain impregnable,” he assured.

He also accused the group of seeking attention by making baseless claims about breaching PCSO’s system.

According to Robles, the Facebook post only referenced email accounts allegedly belonging to PCSO employees, likely from branch personnel in Cagayan, based on the attached screenshots.

He explained that the list in question contained names of individuals who had availed themselves of a PCSO promo at the Cagayan branch in March 2022, and not the names of lotto winners, whether jackpot or consolation prize recipients.

“Our database for the lotto jackpot winners is safe in the head office. The branch offices are not connected to the head office. I have just checked, and at the moment, none of our websites are compromised, breached, or hacked,” he emphasized.