The hackers left a message calling for tighter security measures on the vote counting machines (VCM) to be used during the 2016 Philippine general election on May 9.
COMELEC spokesperson, James Jimenez, stated on his Twitter account that, as they continue to scour the site, all databases would remain temporarily off.
[4] The incident was considered the biggest private data leak in the Philippine history and leaving millions of registered voters at risk.
[11] On 20 April, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) apprehended one of the suspected hackers, later identified as Paul Biteng,[12] the 20-year-old IT graduate student, in his home in Sampaloc, Manila.
[14] Biteng, who is a member of the hacking group Anonymous Philippines, admitted that he defaced the COMELEC website, but denied the contribution in data leak.
[18] In a press conference held on April 29, COMELEC chairperson Andres D. Bautista identified de Asis as one of the ringleaders of the notorious hacker group, Lulzsec Pilipinas.
[22][23] He assured that the data leak will not affect the upcoming elections as they did not hack Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) since it is connected to a different server.
A technical working group tasked to look on the issue of hacking was also formed which is to be led by Director James Jimenez of the Comelec Information and Education Department.