Another poll commissioner believes no Comelec server hacking occurred

Another poll commissioner said she believes the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) servers were not hacked.

In GMA News’ Tina Panganiban-Perez’s interview with Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino on Friday, the poll official said the pertinent data mentioned in the news report were not yet uploaded online.

“I don't think there was hacking…As far as I am aware, the said data is not online,” she said.

“So how can there be breach if no one can access the data via the Internet?” she asked.

Currently, Ferolino said Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo, head of the steering committee for Eleksyon 2022, is already leading the poll body’s efforts to verify the report.

“The data allegedly breached is handled by the steering [committee] with Commissioner Marlon Casquejo as the head…I have trust that Commissioner Casquejo and the rest of the Comelec personnel are doing their best so that we can have a safe, accurate, free and fair elections,” she said.

A similar argument was raised by Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon in a tweet last Tuesday.

“How can they hack our servers @COMELEC when we don’t have PINs yet?  [Information Technology Department] Director told me we don’t have PINs yet,” Guanzon said.

According to Manila Bulletin's report, the hackers allegedly downloaded more than 60 gigabytes of data from the Comelec’s servers, supposedly compromising the 2022 national and local elections.

Among the data that were downloaded are usernames and PINS of vote-counting machines (VCM).

Apart from these, the hackers allegedly accessed the network diagrams, IP addresses, list of all privileged users, domain admin credentials, list of all passwords and domain policies, access to the ballot handling dashboard, and QR code captures of the bureau of canvassers with login and password.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez earlier said there were no pieces of evidence that would support the alleged data breach.

Jimenez previously said they were still validating the alleged hacking of poll data, questioning the report's veracity by arguing that there is nothing to hack since such data is not yet available.

The National Privacy Commission, meanwhile, said it is already investigating the alleged leak, requiring the Comelec to explain the incident.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology also said it will be conducting its own probe into the alleged hacking.

Election watchdog, National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), on Thursday urged the poll body to consult with information technology experts in resolving the reported data breach. — RSJ, GMA News