In the latest research of DICT, they found that the system of Smartmatic, the company handling the upcoming 2022 elections, is compromised.

This was revealed by DICT Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) Executive Director Cezar Mancao II during a joint congressional hearing on the automated election system. While he did not reveal his proof about the compromise in Smartmatic’s system during the hearing, he mentioned that they have identified the group that claimed about the issues about it–though he will only talk about it in an executive session.

“We agree to that at this time, and we also have found out that there was indeed a breach of the system as we have gathered from our sources,” Mancao said during the congressional inquiry.

Mancao’s revelation about Smartmatic is in light of previous reports that Comelec servers were allegedly hacked. Comelec has denied the hacking, with Commissioner Marlon Casquejo saying that even if Smartmatic’s system was compromised, Comelec should not be affected since the data allegedly stolen is not yet available.

“The participation of the provider is providing the software itself. We do not give them sensitive information,” Casquejo said.

Back in May 2021, Comelec announced that it awarded a Php 402.7 million contract to Smartmatic USA Corp. and local partner Smartmatic Philippines to provide the software for the upcoming 2022 national elections.