THE All-Star Weekend is many days over, and is being touted to be very successful, but the PBA has a problem that could destroy the integrity of its fan balloting system after a cyber expert came forward to claim that he had allegedly manipulated the results of the voting.
SPIN.ph was given access to how the manipulation was done through a video showing how thousands of votes were added to names of players with just one click.
And to prove that this was not a mad man seeking publicity, he made Keith Saldivar as an example of how he had manipulated the voting that made an unheralded player top the voting for the Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors game.
READ Yes, Zaldivar really got the most votes for RSJ game
The cyber expert ,who remained anonymous, said he was going public to warn the PBA to improve its system to prevent the manipulation from being repeated. He said he has been tweaking the PBA system for years, influencing results of its balloting.
He also said he had no intention of destryoying the PBA but the league has to look at the matter more seriously. He also said that he wondered why the PBA was doing nothing when the results of the balloting had shown serious discrepancies.
He said now is the time for the PBA to review its system.
The fan balloting for the All-Star Weekend held in Bacolod raised eyebrows when Saldivar, a former Adamson player drafted by Magnolia before moving to Converge, topped the fan voting for the Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors game.
Magnolia guard Mark Barroca also joined Barangay Ginebra big man Japeth as the top vote-getters for the All-Star Game.
The cyber expert made no mention of Barroca, or the votes that he got, in the video.
Curiously, the PBA never released the result of the fan voting done both on site during league games and on its website.
The individual, who claims to be a cyber security expert working for different companies and governments around the world for the past 30 years, explained that he started rigging the voting between Jan. 20 to 24.
"As of January 18, kung mapapansin ninyo, wala pa si Zaldivar (sa early returns ng All Star Balloting). Nung napansin ko na pwede ulit i-hack yung PBA online votes, so pinakialaman ko,” he said.
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“Nag-test muna ako, si Zaldivar muna ang tinry ko. So nung nakita ko na vulnerable ang online votes ng PBA, pinasadahan ko na yan,” added the Filipino hacker.
Curiously, Zaldivar’s votes suddenly skyrocketed from almost zero to 79,150 votes in the next week of voting.
“Kung mapapansin nyo, pumalo kaagad si Keith Zaldivar nung mga January 24. I am sure, marami agad ang nagtaka nun at nagsasabi sa [online] posts na, ‘Sino ba si Zaldivar?'" said the individual.
"Without knowing na ito ay kagagawan ng isang professional hacker,” he added in a video where he spoke in a doctored voice.
He also showed the actual javascript of his hacking attempt, clearly showing how he padded Zaldivar’s votes with an additional 100,000 votes - in one click.
“Nilagyan ko ng hundred thousand votes si Zaldivar ng 100,000 per click,” he said.
The hacker claimed he also padded the votes total of other lesser-known players - and those who he believed would less likely get votes from fans, among them John Amores, Anton Asistio, Matthew Daves, Inand Fornilos, Frederick Tungcab, Gelo Alolino, Kim Aurin, Tyrus Hill, Chris lalata, Zavier Lucero, Allen Mina, Tzaddy Rangel, Raul Soyud, Renato Ular, Jasper Ayaay, Brandon Bates, Caded Flores, Donald Gumaru, Enoch Valdez, Kemark Carino, Rob Herndon, Stephen Holt, Kenneth Tuffin and Adrian Wong in the All Stars main event.
In the Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors, where the hacker said he succeeded in making Zaldivar as the top vote getter, he claimed to have added to the votes for Ben Adamos, Brandon Bates, James Kwekuteye, Patrick Maagdenberg, Jhan McHale Nermal, Jhonard Clarito, Nic Demusis, Chris Lalata, Jeo Ambohot, Anton Asistio, Christian David, Larry Muyang and Tzaddy Rangel.
Votes for Tan, Jarin
The hacker said he also put in votes for Bonnie Tan of Northport and Jamike Jarin of Phoenix in the separate balloting for All-Star coaches.
“Hindi ko sinasabi na hindi sila kilala, sila yung napimili ko kasi sila yung di familiar at baguhan sa akin. Lahat yan nilagyan ng hundred thousand votes. Pag kasi nag hundred thousand votes na yan, papasok na 'yan sa main page nila,” he said.
How it was done
The hacker claimed he disabled the website's cookies, which made it hard for the PBA site to detect his votes.
“Dinisable ko yung cookies nila na 'yun. Yun kasi ang security nila para i-block ang account mo na makaboto ulit. So makikita mo vulnerable talaga,” he said.
“Inulit ulit ko yung hundred thousand votes na yun. Kaya nga, kung mapapansin nyo, hindi nag-post ng votes ang PBA. Kasi gumana ang aking hacking ulit sa PBA online votes,” he added.
The hacker claimed it wasn't the first time he hacked the PBA website, saying that back in 2012 he padded the votes of his favorite player, Ginebra great Mark Caguioa, to more than 2 million votes in an MVP poll run on the official league site.
The poll was not part of the MVP tally, which back then was decided by statistics and votes by the media, players, and PBA officials.
“Ginawa ko na 'yun 12 years ago. Sa PBA MVP votes ni Mark Caguioa. Ikaw pa mismo ang originally nag-post nun sa Twitter based sa interview mo kay Mark,” he said.
“Ganito yun. Since yan ang work ko, nung 90s pa lang nagha-hack ako, nakita ko noon na vulnerable [ang PBA website], kaya ginalaw ko (ng madaling araw),” he said, showing an actual video grab of Caguioa’s votes shooting up in the wee hours in the old PBA page.
“Five-hundred thousand votes ang ginawa ko nun in one click, 2012 ko ginawa yun. Ayan makikita nyo yung voting. Actually, nilagyan ko yung iba. Para hindi halata. Three million ang inabot ng votes ni Caguioa nun,” he said.
READ: Caguioa beats Yap, David for PBA MVP award
The hacker reiterated that Caguioa had no knowledge of the ‘vote rigging.’
But he expressed the hope that with his expose, the PBA will learn to value cyber security, especially since it has been using its official page to conduct online voting for important events for the past decade.
“Dapat matuto sila na pahalagahan ang cyber security kasi hindi lang 'yan ang pwedeng mangyari sa kanila,” he said.
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