Website for election returns secured against hackers – Comelec

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday assured the public that the website that they will use to show the results of the May 9 elections will be highly secured against hackers.

In an interview, Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said adequate security measures will be put in place to make sure that there will be no intrusion of the election website.

“The connection that we are using for transmission is VPN – it’s a virtual private network. Only those who have access can go through that line. It will not be a general website that is open to the public,” he said.

The website will contain all the canvassed election returns (ERs) as these are transmitted to the National Command Center of the Comelec.  

An ER is a document that is produced by the vote counting machine. It contains information about specific polling precincts and the votes cast for each candidate in that precinct, among others.

Lim added that this is not the first time that the Comelec is having an election website “but maybe before it was just not publicized.” 

Seven layers of protection

According to Smartmatic project manager Marlon Garcia, the website will have seven layers of protection to keep it safe from hackers.

“We are taking several measures with regards to the hardening or the security of the platform and constantly, some security tests will be done to make sure that the platform will not be vulnerable to hacking attempts,” he said.

Garcia said in a separate interview that firewalls and other protections are being placed around the system and that they are monitoring “real time” so that they would know if intrusion is underway.

“There are seven layers all in all before somebody can get inside and we have implemented this system in Venezuela, Mexico, the United States and now here. It has already been tested,” he said.

No trending

Lim said that to prevent trending, the Comelec will post voting results without adding the votes.

“You will be able to see the results as they appear (on the ERs) so the people can compare. But we are not going to add the results. We are just going to post the results to give the public a chance to compare them,” he said.  

Meanwhile, former Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes supported the poll body against criticisms of its former commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal over various issues, including the lack of certification from the technical evaluation committee (TEC).

In his Twitter account, Brillantes said the TEC report, “while seemingly not fully complied with, will not render the elections null and void.”

“The May 9 elections is so close such that, even if full compliance would not be undertaken anymore, elections should proceed and such mandatory requirement prior to the elections can be treated as merely directory after,” he noted.

Brillantes added that if such mandatory requirement imposed by law will nullify electoral processes, then the entire elections of 2010 should have been declared null and void because of Comelec’s failure to have interested groups review the source code.

“No source code review by interested groups were conducted prior to the May 2010 elections and yet, the said elections remain valid,” he said.

Under the poll automation law, the multi-sector TEC should certify that the automated election system is compliant with the law 90 days before election day.  – With Rhodina Villanueva