Over 20,000 hacking attempts in 2022 Philippine elections blocked, says National Security Adviser

June 22, 2024

By Expat Media

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Phil Government blocked 20,000 election hacking attempts

More than 20,000 attempts to hack the Philippine election system were reported according to a top government official last Wednesday (May 12). Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., the National Security Adviser and co-chairman of the National Cybersecurity Inter-Agency Committee assured that the government was able to address the said attempts. The recorded hacking attempts happened before and during the May 2022 national and local elections. “Nobody was successful in hacking the system. There were more than 20,000 attempts… pero hindi nila nakayanan [but they were unsuccessful],” Esperon emphasized. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC), the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) were credited by Esperon for the security and unsuccessful hacking of the elections. The National Security Adviser also deemed the May 9 election as “fair, honest, and in order.” He also described the automated election system as “efficient” for the speedy transmission of election results. As for the reports of faulty vote-counting machines (VCMs) that made the hours-long voting delays last Monday (May 9), Esperon assured that the cases did not reach one percent of the total number of VCMs used in the elections. KSO/Expat Media