Philippines poll body records over 3M cyberattacks during mid-term elections

ANKARA

The Philippines Commission on Elections (COMELEC) website and precinct finder apps recorded over 3 million cyberattacks aimed at taking over the systems and to inject malicious information during this week's crucial mid-term polls, local media reported Thursday.

They were the subject of cyberattacks from May 11-14, covering the eve of the elections to the canvassing of votes, the Manila Times reported, citing Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco.

Laudiangco said the COMELEC precinct finder registered 76.81 million visits, with at least 1.45 million identified as hacking attacks.

The COMELEC website registered 113.41 million visits with mitigated confirmed attacks of 1.75 million, he added.

None of the attempts were successful because of the security measures and constant monitoring by the Comelec Cybersecurity Division and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), he added.

Although most of the hacking attempts appeared to originate from abroad, the Comelec cybersecurity experts were convinced that the hackers were actually based in the Philippines, using foreign locations to mislead authorities, Laudiangco said.

Millions of people voted this week to elect more than 18,000 officials, including 12 senators, all the members of the 317-seat House of Representatives and in hotly contested municipal elections.

More than 97% of votes have been counted but official results are days away.

*Writing by Aamir Latif