hacking

Agusan del Norte 1st district representative Lawrence Fortun said that if the hacking claim is proven to be false, those who proliferated the allegations should be held accountable for their actions.

Top officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) told a House committee hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 2, that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has already ruled out any breach of its servers, contrary to a report of the Manila Bulletin.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said while Comelec’s servers may not have been hacked, the poll body should remain on guard against possible unauthorized access to its data as the May polls draw closer.

During a congressional hearing on Friday, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez asked how the Manila Bulletin was able to "verify" the hacking of its servers but the publication was not able to address the query.

The DICT said preliminary findings suggest that a hack was not possible due to the Vote-Counting Machine (VCM) system being offline and the lack of existing data on the Automated Election System (AES) that could be breached.

The Land Bank of the Philippines clarified on Monday, Jan. 24, that its systems were not hacked following reports that alleged unauthorized transactions were experienced by two teachers who maintain payroll accounts with the state-owned bank.

In a statement, BHW party-list representative Angelica Natasha Co said the debunked Comelec hacking claim “is an attempt to cast seeds of doubt in the minds of the public on an IT matter that is beyond their understanding.”

Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon has already branded the purported breach as “fake news” and admonished Manila Bulletin to check their information.

Agusan del Norte representative Lawrence Fortun said in a statement that the Manila Bulletin report was apparently erroneous as “[i]t appears now the alleged hacked files do not exist.”

In filing Senate Resolution No. 961, re-electionist senator Sherwin Gatchalian sought to direct the appropriate committee to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, with the end goal of strengthening the legal framework to enhance the enforcement of Data Privacy Act, Cybercrime Prevention Act, New Central Bank Act, and other related laws.