The National Privacy Commission has recommended data privacy charges against an employee of election technology firm Smartmatic and a suspected hacker for the “breach” of election data months before the May polls last year. | dpazzibuganINQ /PDI
In his sworn statement to the NBI dated Feb. 2, 2022, Argana said he worked for Smartmatic from August 2021 to January 2022 as a quality assurance tester in the Comelec office.
But Steward did not fulfill his end of the deal, only paying Argana with online computer lessons such as for CobaltStrike and Lateral Movement, the NPC said.Other than Argana and Steward, NPC did not name other persons who should be prosecuted for unauthorized access or intentional breach under Section 29 of the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
It added that the data subjects whose personal information was exposed in the forms were either government employees or contractual workers. “Our officials and personnel are currently training on cybersecurity so that we can already establish this new office which is necessary if we are to keep in step with the advancement of technology,” Comelec spokesperson Rex Laudiangco said in a statement on Thursday.In its report, the Bulletin said its Technews team received a tip from a source about a hacking incident at the Comelec involving over 60 gigabytes of data, which it said “could possibly affect the May 2022 elections.
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