PANGILINAN-LED Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) said on Saturday that a limited data breach may have compromised Easytrip user accounts.
Easytrip is used on MPTC’s North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Manila-Cavite Expressway, and Cavite-Laguna Expressway.
“We would like to inform our motorists that a limited data breach took place tonight, and some user accounts may have been accessed and possibly compromised,” MPTC said in a Facebook post on Sept. 7.
The company said the affected system had been contained by its information security team.
“We assure our Easytrip account holders that their toll wallet balances are intact and secure,” the company said.
“We will reach out to the affected account holders.”
On Sept. 7, cybersecurity watchdog group Deep Web Konek said that MPTC had been hit with a data breach by a hacker group and allegedly compromised almost one million Easytrip records.
“A card number inventory of 247,324 cards (both used and unused) has been compromised, alongside MPTC’s internal telephone directory containing 3,000 entries,” Deep Web Konek said in an X post on Sept. 7.
MPTC is the tollways unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante
