Voter data hacked but polls to proceed
Print Edition
THE hacking of a Philippine election database may have exposed the personal information of all 55 million registered voters, but will not undermine national elections to be held on May 9, officials said yesterday, in the latest hacking scandal to hit the Southeast Asian nation.
They said government agents arrested a 23-year-old suspect, a recent graduate in information technology, late Wednesday at his home in Manila. Officials are searching for his alleged accomplices.
Commission on Elections spokesman James Jimenez said the computerized elections will be run on a different server, not the one that was hacked, and that experts say the polls are unlikely to be compromised.
The exposed data is feared to include voters’ names, birthdays, home addresses, e-mail, parents’ full names and in some cases passport details and text markers of fingerprints.
A hacker group defaced the website of the election commission last month, and a second hacker group posted the entire database online, with mirror links where the data could also be downloaded, according to Internet security company Trend Micro.
The Tokyo-based company first reported the breach on its website.
The commission said it has shut down its website.
Presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma condemned the cyberattack and said government agencies are working with the commission to strengthen its security. The government vowed to prosecute the perpetrators.
“Although verifications that have been made thus far have shown that the integrity of the automated election system has not been affected by the latest cyberattack, we share the public’s concern on the ill-effects of this act,” he said.
Trend Micro said that with the breach, “every registered voter in the Philippines is now susceptible to fraud and other risks.”
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