Philippines captures alleged election website hackers
Philippine authorities said on April 21 that they have arrested a suspect in the hacking of the Commission on Elections’s website ahead of presidential polls slated for May.
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The 23-year-old male suspect, arrested in Manila on April 20, told the police that he just changed the homepage interface to expose its vulnerability to potential breaches.
Commission on Election spokesman James Jimenez said that the website was defaced and data relating to birthdays, ages and passport information were copied.
Meanwhile, head of the Commission Andres Bautista stated that other features of the election agency website, such as one that allowed voters to search the precinct where they would cast their votes, have been disrupted.
The hack will not affect the May 9 vote to elect President Benigno Aquino’s successor, as well as thousands of other political posts, the commission confirmed.
Authorities are seeking two other suspects whom the young man described as people he met on social media, Head of the National Bureau of Investigation’s cybercrime unit Ronald Aguto said, adding that one was a recent graduate from an information technology course and the other is a Manila resident.
They will be charged with violating the country’s anti-cybercrime law, Ronald Aguto highlighted.
