Whose Servers? IEBC Denies Hacking Claims By DCI

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 19- Reports by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations that a fraudster who had allegedly hacked the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) servers has raised concerns, as the country is gearing towards an electioneering period.

But in a quick rejoinder, the electoral body has denied the claims, saying their servers have not been infiltrated.

According to the DCI, a 21-year-old suspect who was last week arrested with thousands of SIM-Cards had allegedly infiltrated the IEBC servers, and illegally obtained personal details of 61,617 registered voters from a County in Western Kenya.

“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,” IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati asserted.

The data found in the possession of the suspect, a University student, contained names of registered voters, their ID number and date of birth.

The IEBC chairman, in a statement said, the data in question could have been obtained from entities that acquired it through legitimate means.

According to the Constitution, IEBC is allowed to give part of the register of voters – for specific electoral areas – at a fee.

“The commission services numerous requests by various entities requiring the register of voters for specific electoral areas. These requests are serviced upon payment of certain fees and in accordance with privacy laws requiring personally identifiable information to be kept confidential,” he said.

Chebukati explained that since installation and commissioning of the system eight years ago the BVR system that hosts the register of voters used during elections has never been hacked because the servers are not connected to the open internet.

“The rest of the Commission’s entire internal network is behind a high security fire wall system,” he said.