All ego
The smirk on this twenty-three year old says it all. Paul Biteng, the self-confessed hacker of the Comelec website is often shown in photos smiling as if he was watching something funny. But the reason for his smirk is utterly serious. Apparently bored with his life of computer games and cellphone fidgeting, he decides that he should try to hack into the Comelec website.
With the elections just around the corner, hacking into Comelec seemed to be the thing to do. According to the cyber criminal, he wanted to prove that the website was not secure from attacks. And he was right. He was able to get into the site, and with it, all the sensitive information it concealed.
While sitting back and admiring his work, it dawned on him that he would eventually get arrested for what he did. Obviously, this did not bother him. In fact, he welcomed it, for it would be the way his name and what he has done would resonate among the IT community. So when the NBI agents came knocking, he did not resist, and even admitted to the crime.
Although his claimed intention was just "to give a voice to the voiceless," he shared what he was doing with other like-minded individuals, who saw the opportunity to go a step further - acquiring the sensitive database of voters. According to Biteng, he only wanted to show that the Comelec website was not secure. Well it sure wasn't. But if he were just a bit more altruistic, he should have coordinated with the Comelec and showed what he could do in private.
But then, his identity, and what he was capable of doing would not be known. This, his ego could not accept. Which is why, I don't buy the "voice to the voiceless" excrement. A lot of that ego-tripping is going around lately. But I digress.
What he has done has put the Comelec on the spot, with a little more than a week away from national elections. This makes what Paul Biteng has done a crime of the highest magnitude. He has endangered the security and privacy of millions. He has placed the elections in jeopardy. He may have given the Comelec a red face, but he has also given a bad image to all IT specialists. All this, it is because he was bored. I wonder what he would have done if he was motivated. Would he have also stolen millions of dollars from another third world country?
He will be charged, based on current laws on cybercrime. Judging from his tongue-in-cheek comments and devil-may-care attitude, the prospect of him languishing in prison has not sunk in. When it finally does, I hope he panics. Perhaps he meets the devil in there.
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