Imee confirms security breach in Smartmatic ops ahead of polls

Senator Imee Marcos on Thursday said a security breach occurred within the operations of Smartmatic, the poll technology provider for the May 2022 automated elections.

"There indeed was a security breach in the Smartmatic operation that appears to be clear," Senator Marcos, who chairs the Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation, said during a media briefing after their second hearing on various issues involving the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

"While it is being investigated further by the NBI, the CICC (Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center), the National Privacy Commission and other groups, we have to admit that a very serious breach occurred, it may not be hacking, technically, but we feel that it compromises the processes and operations of Smartmatic in very serious ways," she said.

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

"Andoon lahat sa Facebook eh, nakakapagtaka eh. Kaya medyo kinakabahan tayo to that degree, the depth and breadth of the data that has been released, that is still publicly available as far as I know. Nandoon nakita ko, and we may be involved with a criminals' hacking syndicate, yang XFOS," she said.

(It's all on Facebook, it is intriguing. We are a bit nervous to that degree due to the depth and breadth of the data that has been released, that is still publicly available as far as I know. I saw it, we may be involved with criminals' hacking syndicate, the XFOS.)

"Mayroong empleyado ang Smartmatic na nilabas 'yung laptop niya at hinayaang well, not hacked, but hinayaang makopya ng a certain group. I think that is as far as we can go," Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who was present in the hearing, disclosed.

(A Smartmatic employee took his laptop out and let it well, not hacked, but allowed its files to be copied by a certain group.)

"'Yung mga sinasabi ko, mga luma na raw 'yon, 2016, pero hindi natin alam. May ballot face ng 2022 pero sinasabi nila naka website naman daw 'yan. Pero ganoon pa man masyadong personal 'yung ibang detalye. Nakakanerbyos. Pati 'yung mga flowchart, 'yung mga processes ng Smartmatic. May mga password, userword, sabi nila bulok na at non-usable," Marcos added.

(They say the data were old, from 2016, but we don't know. There are ballot faces for 2022 but they say it's on the website. Nevertheless, other details are still very personal. It gets me nervous. Even the flow charts and the Smartmatic processes. There are passwords, userwords, they say these were expired and non-usable.)

"But nevertheless, the wealth of detail and the depth of knowledge is a little bit alarming," she said. —LBG, GMA News