As the 2022 National Elections are coming near, people are more vigilant with all of COMELEC’s preparations. While we have yet to hear new details about their preparations, a report from Manila Bulletin said that the web servers of COMELEC were involved in an alleged hacking incident. The report claims that the hackers were able to download “more than 60GB of data” that can affect the upcoming May 2022 elections.
The data that was allegedly hacked from COMELEC’s web servers include sensitive information like the location of all voting precincts, details of the board of canvassers, and more. While the report said that they have forwarded their findings with COMELEC, spokesperson James Jimenez gave a statement, saying that COMELEC “is presently validating the allegations.”
“The fact, however, is that such information still does not exist in COMELEC systems simply because the configuration files – which include usernames and PINs – have not yet been completed. This calls into question the veracity of the hacking claim,” Jimenez said in his statement, explaining that COMELEC will need further verification on the alleged hacking incident. “The article offers scant substantiation for its assertions despite claiming that the authors had ‘verified that there was an ongoing hack.’ Indeed, the article does not even offer proof of such verification.”
Concluding Jimenez’s statement COMELEC “stands ready to pursue all available remedies against those who, either deliberately or otherwise, undermine the integrity of the electoral process.”
Prior to this, Comelec did suffer a breach months before the 2016 National Elections, where sensitive information that includes over 220k emails was exposed.
