IEBC Refutes Hacking Claims

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has denied claims by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that a fraudster and his syndicate recently hacked into their database and repossessed personal details from the voter registers.

Authorities said the suspect and his gang, gained access to IEBC’s database and stole the personal details of 61,617 registered voters from a county in western Kenya. The data found in his possession contains names of registered voters, their ID numbers and dates of birth.

The 21-year-old is said to have randomly called users and convincing them that they were the wrong owners of the said SIM cards. He would pose as an M-Pesa customer service representative and would trick unsuspecting victims into dialing random codes, thereby gaining access to the victim’s accounts after successfully swapping SIM card details, stealing information and money from the victims.

However, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said the reports were not factual and argued the register of voters is kept in a Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system, which he said has never been tampered with since it was installed eight years ago.

He said the BVR system was designed to have its own isolated network making it difficult for hackers to infiltrate it.

“The Commission’s register of voters is kept in a Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system, which is hosted on several servers. The BVR system has been designed to have its own isolated network, set of servers as well as user account directory to ensure integrity, confidentiality and high availability,” he said.

Chebukati also distanced the commission from the arrest of a 21-year-old suspect and a former telco staff on accusations of hacking into the IEBC database.