EC admits election server was breached

Elections Commission (EC) has last night admitted to having had the commission’s server breached and the voters’ list tampered.

When asked during a press conference if the commission’s database was ever compromised, commission member Ali Mohamed Manik said that the “database was changed” and that the “list generation was commenced after all the changes were recovered.” He did not provide details.

Commission’s vice president Ahmed Fayaz Hassan said all discussions with experts at the National Centre for Information Technology (NCIT) has led to the conclusion that no computer system can be made 100 percent secure.

“We have not received such an assurance from anyone, for any system. From our discussions with the NCIT, we’ve learned from their experts that no system is 100 percent security proof. Everything, at any time, could be subject to any sort of attack,” Fayaz said.

He said that the commission is required to ensure that the elections database is protected and that they have sought advice, on numerous occasions, from the NCIT.

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Jumhoory Party (JP) have both accused the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of hacking into the elections database and altering the voters’ list. The police are also investigating the case.