Chinese man arrested near Comelec with IMSI catcher, may have accessed 5,000 mobile subscribers' data

A Chinese man arrested near the Commission on Elections (Comelec) building in Manila may have accessed data from around 5,000 mobile phone subscribers using an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catcher.

NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin confirmed during a Senate hearing that the device was operational and had gathered sensitive information within its range of 500 meters to 3 kilometers, targeting areas like the Supreme Court, Department of Justice, Villamor Air Base, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and Comelec.

The IMSI catcher not only targeted employees but also passersby in highly populated areas, according to Lavin.

NBI expects to complete a cyber-forensic lab exam and release an initial report before the May 12 election next week, with plans to send a copy of their findings to Comelec.

Comelec chairperson George Garcia assured that no election systems or data were compromised as a result of this incident.