‘Data of voters’ obtained by Smartmatic hackers, claims CICC exec Mancao

Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) executive director Cezar Mancao II on Thursday said the hackers arrested for ‘selling victories’ to Eleksyon 2022 candidates were able to obtain the data of voters.

Mancao said his information technology operatives told him the information of voters were among the data accessed by the hackers.

“As per the evidence gathered by my IT operatives earlier, there were data of voters,” he said in an interview on ANC.

“Well, as I have said, we have gotten access, we were given actually, if you are a voter we know where you would be voting, what province, what precinct, if you are still actively participating,” he added when asked what kind of data was involved.

Asked if the hackers had access to the data of around 65 million voters in the country, Mancao said: “That's what my IT operatives have gotten.”

He, however, quickly clarified that he did not see the leaked voters data and he has to verify it again.

“Hold on, I wish I have to correct myself. I know for a fact, I have seen it, because I have seen it myself, that in a particular barangay, the clustered precinct, what number, the codes, and some other details to that matter, I personally saw it, that was given,” he said.

On the voters' data, it is my IT operatives who have said it so I have to correct myself…I have said it is coming from my IT, I have not seen it myself, I still have to verify it again. But surely I can tell that I have seen in the evidence that were shown to me previously that this group has given our IT operatives the data for voting precincts all over the country, the clustered precincts, their codes, their numbers,” he said.

On April 1, Commission on Elections chairperson Saidamen Pangarungan said Smartmatic Inc., the service provider for the 2022 automated elections, claimed that the "data leak" occurred in its system was unrelated to the May 9 polls.

On April 24, the CICC and the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group arrested the three hackers who were allegedly selling sure win to candidates in entrapment operations in Imus, Cavite, and Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Mancao said that mastermind Jeffrey Cruz Limpiado or “Brake/Vanguard/Universe/LRR” admitted that he paid P300,000 for the access to the system to former Smartmatic employee Ricardo Argana.

Argana initially surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with the breach to the Smartmatic system and went into hiding.

According to Mancao, the other two arrested hackers identified as Adrian de Jesus Martinez or “Admin X” and Joel Adajar Ilagan or “Borger” were cohorts of Limpiado.

“We have been watching them for almost three months now,” he said.

He said he hackers are marketing that they can make a candidate win because they can change the result of the election by showing the data they obtained from the Smartmatic system.

"It’s quite impossible to do," said Mancao.

"Initially it was a plan to really rig the elections, initially they thought because they have access to Smartmatic system that they can go through it. But they haven’t really exploited or have gained access to the Comelec and Comelec will be the one to use it," he added.—AOL, GMA News