STATEMENT BY THE
HONORABLE FREDERICK W. SIAO
Lone District of Iligan City
Vice Chair, Committee on Tourism
Member, Committees on Appropriations, Mindanao Affairs,
Youth & Sports Development, and 7 other committees
COMELEC MUST BE READY AGAINST IDENTITY THIEVES WHO USE HACKED VOTERS DATA
House Committee on Suffrage & Electoral Reforms Member and Iligan Lone District Congressman Frederick W. Siao is concerned about the possibility that the massive security breach suffered by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) over a year ago could still be used by fraudsters in 2018 Barangay and SK elections and 2019 mid-term elections.
In March and April 2016, the public information website of the COMELEC was hacked causing the personal data of 55 million registered voters, passport details of 1.3 million overseas Filipino voters, and fingerprint records of 15.8 million voters to be uploaded online and be accessible to all.
COMELEC must assure Filipino voters here and overseas that the database of voters is secured. COMELEC must also have measures in place to prevent anyone who has the data hacked from the COMELEC or used data from the hacking to vote.
Now, it is not impossible or improbable for identity thieves to issue fake voter IDs. With the hacked data out there, they have the information they need to produce fake voter IDs and if this is done on a massive scale, the results of future elections could be in serious doubt.
COMELEC should also updated Congress and the Filipino people on the status of the hacking case, including the case/s against the suspects or suspects in the hacking.
Filing of applications for registration and other voter-related registration for the May 13, 2019 National and Local Elections, according to the COMELEC, will be on December 4, 2017 to December 30, 2017 except December 25, 2017 (Christmas Day) and January 2, 2018 to September 29, 2018, except March 29 & 30, 2018 (Maundy Thursday and Good Friday).
But there are reports voter registration could start earlier than scheduled. (END)
REFERENCES:
https://news.mb.com.ph/2017/10/09/early-resumption-of-voters-registration-period-mulled http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/04/08/1570934/comelec-hack-puts-data-55m-registered-voters-risk-security-firm-says https://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/130252-suspected-hacker-comelec-website-nabbedhttp://news.abs-cbn.com/halalan2016/nation/04/21/16/nbi-arrests-hacker-of-comelec-websitehttp://www.gmanetwork.com/news/scitech/technology/561849/phl-voters-at-risk-following-comelec-site-hacking-says-cybersecurity-firm/story/Use the Best Anti-Virus Protection. Pls follow the link:
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