Authorities determining political candidate involvement in ‘Smartmatic breach’ –Imee

Senator Imee Marcos on Saturday said authorities were still investigating if a political candidate was involved in the alleged security breach at Smartmatic - the poll technology provider for the May 2022 automated elections.

Marcos, who chairs the Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation, said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) were investigating the incident.

However, she insisted that there was a criminal hacking syndicate involved.

Marcos had claimed that Smartmatic data, including personal information, ledgers, photos of their office, contact persons in the Comelec, might have been hacked by a syndicate group.

A Smartmatic employee allegedly took his laptop out and allowed its files to be copied by a group.

Asked if Smartmatic was liable and negligent, Marcos said it should have a vetting procedure for its employees.

“Yung Smartmatic naman konting higpit naman konting vetting procedures sa mga empleyado nila. Nakakainis din dahil hindi daw alam samantalang yung sinasabi ng DICT pati ng NBI there is a possible cybercrime involved because clearly this group is a criminal hacking syndicate. Ngayon kung affiliated siya sa politiko o hindi, hindi pa natin alam pa,” Marcos said in a radio interview.

(Smartmatic should have stricter vetting procedures for their employees. It's also annoying because they said they didn't know about it. But the DICT and the NBI said there could have been a cybercrime because clearly, these groups are a criminal hacking syndicate. Whether he is affiliated with a politician or not, we don't know yet.)

With only a few weeks to go before Eleksyon 2022, the senator appealed to the media, political parties, and public to strictly monitor the situation.

“Hindi biro-biro. Mahirap talaga kapag nagbabantay, mas lalong mahirap kapag nagkaroon ng pandaraya,” she added.

(This is not a joke. It's hard to monitor, but it is even harder when cheating is involved.)

The Commission on Elections said it would immediately take action on the alleged security breach at Smartmatic.

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said the poll body would wait for the NBI's report on the alleged infringement.

Meanwhile, according to Ian Cruz's report on "24 Oras,” Smartmatic denied the allegations.

"Gusto lamang po naming klaruhin na hindi po 'yon totoo. Wala pong katotohanan," Smartmatic spokesperson Atty. Christopher Louie Ocampo said.

(We want to clarify that the allegations are untrue. There is no truth to it.)

— DVM, GMA News