“Major Breach” Discovered in the Transparency Server of the Comelec!

12 May “Major Breach” Discovered in the Transparency Server of the Comelec!

Image Source | interaksyon.com

The 2016 Philippine General Election is about to end as 95% of votes has been successfully transmitted. But an IT expert discovered something malicious on the evening of May 9, 2016.

Poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV)’s IT expert and observer, who asked anonymity, discovered a “major breach” in the transparency server of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

An evidence is in the hand of the PPCRV’s IT expert that the script of the transparency server has been compromised by a Venezuelan IT expert of Smartmatic when the hash code of the server has been altered.

Smartmatic is the official supplier of the vote counting machines or VCM to the Comelec.

This alteration has been made when there was no Comelec official present. It can change the result of the ongoing counting of the unofficial votes coming in for the candidates in the election.

Among any other, the Vice-Presidential race is the most talked issue that might have been affected by this new script that has been inappropriately inserted into the system.

“The whole system has been compromised. The integrity of the results is now under question. While everybody was busy doing the counting, the Venezuelan IT expert from Smartmatic inserted a new script or a new computer program into the system around 7:30 p.m. Of Monday, May 9, 2016,” said the IT expert.

By tampering the hash codes, Smartmatic has violated the protocol of the laws in the Country. Such act compromises the credibility and integrity of protecting the files contained in the transparency server where the election results are stored.

A confrontation with the Venezuelan IT expert has been made and was recorded in a video.

He said that he has changed the script because one of the candidate’s names is erroneously displayed on the screen.

PPCRV’s IT expert and expositor said, “What an excuse? The guy was obviously pulling our leg. We are IT experts; we know a new program was not needed to make changes in the name. So if he could alter the name, then he could alter the results.”

He also added, “we knew what the Venezuelan did was something irregular. He introduced a new script, a new computer program, and commands that could alter everything and supersede the existing program, the hash code inside the transparency server should be the same as the one to be inserted. We saw they’re different so we started to be suspicious and confronted the guy.”

When asked on who was the candidate that has his/her name erroneously displayed on the screen, the Venezuelan IT expert ran out of reasons in his excuses.

But the Venezuelan revealed that it was Marlon Garcia, project director of Smartmatic who commanded him to change the script of the server.

The “clogging” of te system has been observed prior to the sudden surge of votes for Liberal Party (LP) bet Leni Robredo.

On May 10, 8 pm, PPCRV’s Henrietta de Villa and William Yu, a PPCRV expert meet to discuss the report and told what happened during the discovery of the breach.

The camp of Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos Jr. requested the PPCRV to stop the counting, but did not yield for the Comelec did not authorize them to do so.

De Villa denied the reports and claims the integrity of the server is safe and secure as it has been from the start.

“Of course, De Villa is lying. She was made aware of such breach and she could not possibly deny it since there is a CCTV camera of the conference, where she was told about the incident,” said the expositor.

The video and audio of the breach will soon be released. An investigation is yet to be done to study the breach.

The source said, “The probe will allow us to do an analysis as to the extent of the breach. It will tell us how much votes had been shaved from one candidate and transferred to another. It will also reveal who benefited from the anomalous actions done by Smartmatic.”

If such breach had happened, Marcos’ political campaign adviser Abakada Rep. Jonathan Dela Cruz said that the Comelec will be made accountable for the unlawful act.

Republic Acts 8436 and 9369 are violated by the Smartmatic and Comelec according to the IT expert.