Over 20,000 attempts to hack elections, but Esperon says gov’t warded it off
MANILA, Philippines — National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said on Wednesday that there were over 20,000 attempts to hack the automated election system before and during the May 9 elections, but the government was able to block all of them.
Esperon during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday said that the Department of Informations and Communications Technology (DICT) and other agencies helping the Commission on Elections (Comelec) deserve praise for holding peaceful polls.
“There were more than 20,000 attempts […] during the elections, during May 9, before that kasi pre-emptive kami. Recorded namin about 20,000. Pero hindi nila nakayanan, so naging efficient ‘yong ating sistema sa automated election systems, very fast ‘yong ating transmissions,” Esperon said.
“‘Yong DICT ang laki ng nagawa niya, alam mo ba there were thousands of attempts to hack the system? At DICT and — hindi ko naman sinasabi dahil ako ay co-chairman ng National Cybersecurity Interagency Committee, di naman namin ipinagmamalaki ito but nobody was successful in hacking the system,” he added.
Esperon did not delve into details about the hacking attempts, but last April 26, three hackers who claimed they can breach the Comelec system and manipulate the outcome of the 2022 elections were arrested in Cavite and Laguna by both the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC).
CICC however said that there was no real capability from the arrested hackers to get through the automated system, even with the help of a former Smartmatic employee. Instead, the suspects were only out to scam politicians by duping them into thinking that they can alter results.
Smartmatic is the provider of the country’s automated election system.
Esperon also questioned why some factions are finding it hard to accept the poll results when the country saw an efficient transmission of votes.
He assured though that the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) — the citizen’s arm of the Comelec for this elections — is doing a manual checking to confirm the tally of Comelec’s partial and unofficial results.
“Nabigla ba kayo dahil efficient ang ating transmission ngayon? Hindi nagkaro’n ng glitch? Suspetsa ko parang hindi tayo maniwala na efficient pala ‘yong sistema na ‘yon. First, we must congratulate Comelec and all the agencies that supported it, including the Armed Forces, the PNP, DICT,” Esperon said.
“At ‘yong resulta ng local elections at dahil do’n na-proklama na ang mga mayor, congressman, gobernador. Naniniwala ‘yong mga tao sa level ng municipality, provinces, eh bakit hindi tayo naniniwala sa results sa national. Ngayon kung may duda pa, malalaman dun natin sa manual listing na ginagawa ngayon ng PPCRV at saka sa canvassing na gagawin ng Congress mismo,” he added.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Comelec’s transparency server showed that former senator Bongbong Marcos already has over 30.95 million votes, way ahead of rival Vice President Leni Robredo’s 14.75 million votes.