Comelec to meet with Smartmatic execs to tackle alleged file leakage

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will meet with Smartmatic officials Thursday afternoon to discuss alleged leakage of its files, poll body Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan said.

Smartmatic is the service provider of the country’s automated election system.

“‘Yung tungkol sa (Regarding) Smartmatic, we have addressed that… We required Smartmatic to submit the report on what happened to that leakage ng mga (of their) files… by one employee,” Pangarungan said in a press briefing.

“We required also the [National Bureau of Investigation] to submit its report. So, this afternoon, we are meeting the top officials of Smartmatic para pag-usapan namin itong incident na ito (to discuss the incident),” he added.

Senator Imee Marcos, chair of the joint congressional oversight committee on the elections,  earlier disclosed that a Smartmatic employee permitted hackers to copy data from a company-issued laptop.

READ: Lawmakers cite Smartmatic leak; let’s wait for NBI, says Comelec

The Comelec then said that it will review its contract with Smartmatic following the security breach allegations.

READ: Comelec to review contract with Smartmatic amid security breach allegations

In January, the Manila Bulletin reported that Comelec servers were hacked, leading to stolen files.

READ: Comelec questions systems breach report; says validation underway

The Comelec questioned the report’s accuracy but still assured that validation was underway.

READ: NBI starts probe on alleged Comelec hacking, data breach — Guevarra

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