Comelec denies data breach allegations, launches cybersecurity probe

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) denied allegations of a data breach in its system on Monday, February 17.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia stated that there was no recent hacking incident and confirmed the Comelec website and social media pages were secure.

Garcia said IT personnel have been mobilized to ensure the system's integrity and security ahead of the upcoming elections.

The Comelec Cybersecurity Division launched an investigation, activating all relevant cybersecurity protocols and reporting information to the National Computer Emergency Response Team and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said that initial investigations showed no recent data breach involving documents on overseas voting, noting these documents were already publicly available online as mandated by Republic Act No. 10590.

The poll body assured compliance with all orders from the National Privacy Commission and implemented enhanced cybersecurity protocols following a previous data breach in 2016.

Comelec servers for the upcoming elections are not connected to the internet, and an investigation will be conducted with assistance from various agencies including the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, and DICT-CICC.