LTO mum on alleged data breach

Land Transportation Management System (LTMS)

THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) has yet to issue a statement on allegations that the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS), an information technology platform constructed by embattled German contractor Dermalog, was compromised.

The alleged data breach was first mentioned in a Facebook post by technology journalist Art Samaniego on April 20. Samaniego said that 45,008 customer credentials and 8,442 LTO employee data could have been compromised.

Anti-cyber threat group Deep Web Konek (DWK) said in a Facebook post also on April 20 that it has monitored a recent data breach in the LTO platform.

“There were two reports within this week sent to DWK. The other 34 gigabytes of data was compromised, which the team is still waiting for samples for checking,” the post read.

The LTO said it would terminate its P3.14-billion contract with Dermalog due to underperformance.

The Department of Transportation said the LTMS lacks features crucial to LTO’s daily operations, including a payment system.

The LTMS was developed through a joint venture agreement between Dermalog and its local partners, Holy Family Printing Corp., Microgenesis and Verzontal Builders Inc., after the German firm secured the project through competitive bidding in May 2018.

During a congressional hearing on March 7, House Committee on Transportation Chairman and Antipolo City 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop said that Dermalog violated two provisions of the government procurement manual when it failed to submit the required deliverables on time despite being granted 13 deadline extensions.