Sensitive voter information may have been compromised after a group of hackers allegedly breached the Commission on Elections (Comelec) servers, stealing more than 60 terabytes of data that might potentially damage the May 2022 elections.
The Manila Bulletin (MB) Technews team uncovered that the hackers’ organization managed to infiltrate the Comelec’s system last Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022, and obtain files that included, among other things, usernames and PINS of vote-counting devices (VCM).
The findings of the MB Technews team were promptly communicated to Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez. Jimenez stated that he will bring the facts to the Comelec Steering Committee’s attention.
Jimenez told MBTechnews on Monday, January 10, 2022, that he had yet to get a response from the Comelec Steering Committee.
Network diagrams, IP addresses, a list of all privileged users, domain admin credentials, a list of all passwords and domain policies, access to the ballot handling dashboard, and QR code grabs of the bureau of canvassers with login and password were also downloaded.
“Sensitive material downloaded also included a list of overseas absentee voters, the location of all voting precincts with details of the board of canvassers, the entire database configuration list, and a list of all Comelec personnel user accounts,” MBTechnews reported.
A source informed MBTechnews on Saturday, January 8, 2022, that there was an ongoing hack of Comelec servers.
MBTechnews quickly verified this information and discovered that the servers were definitely being hacked. Further research revealed that the hackers took Comelec information as part of their hacking scheme.
Source: ManilaBulletin