In the hours before and during the elections there was a behind-the-scenes cybernetic war that forced the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to maximize the use of anti-hacking technology to ensure that there was no manipulation of the data, according to a report in Listin Diario.

A source told the newspaper that many acts of manipulation and sabotage were discovered amongst the scanners during an inspection process. These machines are used when the election results (actas) are scanned at each of the polling stations around the country.

JCE president Roberto Rosario was made aware of the situation, although they were unable to detect who was behind the sabotage. According to the sources, Rosario said that the information should be kept in strictest confidence and even the members of the computer center were not told.

One of the specialists working closely with the scanners told Listin Diario that reprogramming one or a few of these machines could lead to the collapse of data transmission. Therefore, five teams of trustworthy technicians went throughout the country reprogramming the scanners, so that they would be harder to sabotage.

State intelligence sources consulted by Listin Diario said that they had overheard a telephone conversation by someone saying that the codes had been changed so they could no longer read the scanner information.

On election day itself, a team specializing in cybernetic counter-insurgency was on the lookout for potential hackers and to repel any such action. They did identify some hackers, who according to the sources were mainly located in Mexico.

The JCE had a back-up system in the United Kingdom in case their whole system crashed, and according to the sources there was a battle day and night against the hackers and in the end the JCE was able to prevent what could have been a total collapse.

So far, no one is in police custody.

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