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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Comelec acting on alleged data breach in Smartmatic

Comelec acting on alleged data breach in Smartmatic

Published Mar 23, 2022 04:23 pm

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Wednesday, March 23, that it is taking action on the alleged data breach in Smartmatic.

Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan and Commissioner George Garcia during the walkthrough of the VCM and CCS production and deployment process held at Comelec warehouse, Sta. Rosa, Laguna March 14, 2022.(Ali Vicoy)

"Details cannot be revealed yet so as not to prejudice the on - going NBI investigation," Comelec Commissioner George Irwin Garcia said.

He added that Directives will be given to certain poll body officials and that they are expecting the directive to be complied with until March 29.

Garcia earlier stated in a public briefing on March 17 that the Comelec was never hacked.

This was after an executive session with fellow Comelec officials, Smartmatic, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the Department of Information and Technology (DICT).

Senator Imee Marcos, chairperson of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) on the Automated Election System said that the media “was right” in its report of the alleged hacking.

Marcos stated that the potential for a very serious breach is now there. She found it "rather alarming" as it appears that Smartmatic's contractual employees have access to very confidential data, locations and other facilities. A Smartmatic employee was also said to have managed to take home his or her laptop and allowed a “certain group” to copy their data.

"Dun sa issue na yan na sinasabi ni Senator Imee Marcos yun nga yung gusto namin malaman. Kaya kanina nakatingin lahat kami sa NBI kasi sana may ganun na sana yung NBI na report (On that issue that Senator Imee Marcos pointed out, that's what we would have wanted to know. That's why we were looking at NBI because they could have presented that kind of report)," Garcia said.

"Kasi maganda kung may dala siyang report, malalaman natin may nangyari ba talagang ganun? Sino ang culprit? Ito ba ay crime? May kriminal ba dito? Ito ba ay may violation ng batas natin? May mapapakulong ba tayo dito? (It's better if they brought a report, we would if something like that actually happened? Who's the culprit? Was this a crime? Is there a criminal? Is this a violation of our laws? Can we indict someone?)" he added.

Garcia mentioned that they would have to review all of their contracts, and their agreements with Smartmatic in connection to data sharing.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez on the other hand stated during that press briefing that as far as the relationship of Smartmatic with Comelec is concerned, the poll body is fully in-charge of the elections and that they are confident that even in this particular case, no hacking occurred.

Related Tags

2022 elections 2022 presidential elections 2022 polls Comelec 2022 national and local polls Commission on Elections (Comelec) 2022 NATIONAL AND LOCAL ELECTIONS Commission on Elections smartmatic
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