MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation on Thursday confirmed that a person believed responsible for hacking the website of the Commission on Elections has been arrested.
NBI Director Virgilio Mendez said the suspected hacker was nabbed Wednesday night through the help of intelligence gathered by the NBI Cybercrime Division. The suspect is now in NBI custody.
According to reports, the suspected hacker was arrested after weeks of digital and human surveillance.
The Comelec website was defaced on March 28 and its database was leaked online, sparking fears that the security of the automated elections system and of the voting machines will be affected.
Anonymous Philippines has claimed responsibility for the hacking and the Comelec data was leaked by LulzSec Pilipinas.
Tech firm TrendMicro reported that the website hacking and the leak of the Comelec database put the information of 55 million registered voters in the country at risk and exposed them to identity theft. The report said the Comelec hacking may be the biggest government-related data breach in history.
Meanwhile, Comelec allayed the public’s fears and assured the voters that sensitive biometrics data weren’t included in the database that the hackers leaked. —Rosette Adel
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