Comelec: Data leak only concerns Smartmatic’s internal operations

MANILA, Philippines — The Smartmatic data that was leaked only involved the company’s internal operations and is not related to the May elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Friday.

Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan said Smartmatic senior officials paid him a courtesy call on Thursday to discuss the data breach. He added that the poll body also required Smartmatic to explain the matter since last week.

“They emphasized that the data leak does not have anything to do with the elections in 2022,” he said in a press briefing.

“What was leaked were data concerning their internal organization and activities. So they assured us that the security of the ballot, the configured SD card was not compromised by that leakage,” he added.

Earlier, Senator Imee Marcos disclosed that an employee of Smartmatic, the country’s election service provider, allegedly allowed a group of hackers to copy election data from a company-issued laptop.

Pangarungan said he was told by Smartmatic that they have implemented an appropriate disciplinary action against the concerned employee.

“I think parang tinanggal na sa trabaho ‘yung tao na yun for that breach. That’s my understanding. But we told Smartmatic na hindi dapat maulit ito. Huwag na huwag nang uulitin itong nangyari. Very unfortunate incident. Kasi napakaliit na bagay and it created a lot of ruckus,” he said.

(I think that person was removed from his job. That’s my understanding. But we told Smartmatic that this should not happen again. This should definitely not happen again. It is a very unfortunate incident. It was a small issue but it created a lot of ruckus.)

Pangarungan said the Comelec is awaiting the official report of the National Bureau of Investigation before deciding about its next steps on the issue. He said Smartmatic is aware that Comelec is studying all possible courses of action that could be taken against them.

“We have asked our law department to submit to us all possible actions that we will take on this breach,” said Pangarungan.

“I want to assure everyone, you read my lips, we will not allow anyone to undermine the people’s confidence in our electoral system. That is our pledge. That’s why I ordered for full transparency without compromising the security of the ballots and the SD cards,” he stressed.

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/MUF