Photo of animal used for SIM registration? Here's what the NBI found out

Can a photo of an animal be used for SIM registration? The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has the answer.

Sample ID for SIM registration

A flaw in SIM registration

During a Senate hearing earlier this week, the NBI bared that it successfully registered a SIM using a photo of a monkey, a flaw in the SIM registration process. NBI Cybercrime Division chief Jeremy Lotoc said this was part of the agency’s investigation.

He even noted that it was easy to craft a government ID online to use for SIM registration.

We entered the face of an animal and different names, natanggap pa rin, Lotoc said.

Senator Joel Villanueva slammed the representatives from the telcos because of this development.

If you're with the telcos and you see the application form of that monkey smiling at you, what the heck are you doing? It's common sense na hindi dapat pagbigyan 'to dahil hindi natin mahuhuli yong mga gumagawa ng kalokohan dito, Villanueva said.

Ariel Tubayan, head of the policy division of Globe Telecom, said that a fully implemented national ID system can prevent such a thing from happening.

DITO Telecommunity, meanwhile, said that its system would not process if a photo of an animal is presented.

Smart Communications, on the other hand, said that it would look into the matter.

Source: CNN Philippines