Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon speaks before media on Friday calling for an investigation of a protocol breach by poll technology provider Smartmatic. The transparency server script was tweaked by Smartmatic to correct a character in the names of candidates with “ñ in them.(MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – A party-list representative on Tuesday sued officials of technology provider Smartmatic-Total Information Management and employees of the Commission on Elections over the alleged tampering of the automated election system (AES) used in the May 9 national elections.
In a complaint filed with the Manila Prosecutor’s Office, Abakada-Guro party-list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz accused the respondents of committing a security breach in the AES, particularly in the script of the transparency server, “compromising the integrity and credibility of the 2016 elections, in addition to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and system.”
Dela Cruz said the Smartmatic officers’ actions were in violation of Sections 4(a)(1), (3), and (4) of Republic Act No. 10175, which required the Smartmatic to inform and secure an authorization from Comelec en banc for any modification in the script to be used in the server.
Named respondents were Smartmatic technical support team head Marlon Garcia, Smartmatic project director Elie Moreno, technical support team member Neil Banigued, Mauricio Herrera, Comelec information technology officer Rouie Penalba, and Comelec employees Nelson Herrera and Frances Mae Gonzalez.
The supposed “security breach” that the complainant was referring to was when Smartmatic made an adjustment to the script to fix an issue involving the “Ñ” character being replaced by “?”.
After learning that the data package in the script contained a special character “?” in the name of the candidate, Garcia said they made the necessary “cosmetic change” on the script to correct the error.
Garcia had said that there was no longer any need to notify the Comelec chairman and commissioners about the modification he made, saying: “There are just certain matters that need to be escalated to en banc.”
Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, however, said that the Smartamtic should have notified the poll body about the modification made in the script of the transparency server.
“Indeed, the act of ‘tweaking’ the script of the transparency server caused widespread anxiety and concern amongst the nation. The lapses in protocol have undermined the credibility and integrity of the 2016 elections including the confidentiality, integrity and availability afforded to computer data and systems,” read the complaint. (MNS)