Inquiry regarding game integrity and potential data manipulation

I am writing this because I have experienced several suspicious incidents in my games that suggest the use of hacks.

I would like to know if it is technically possible to manipulate game data by declaring war on an AI nation at the start of a match. For example, if a player (e.g., Egypt) declares war on an AI (e.g., Belarus) immediately, could that be used to trigger a change in the game files to give certain players an unrealistic amount of units?

I also experienced a very strange situation in a previous game where, as South India, I suddenly found myself at war with the Philippines despite having had no contact with them. The Philippines had been nearly wiped out and were somehow at war with 10 different nations simultaneously.

It felt as though the game data had been tampered with. Could anyone explain if this is possible or if there is another explanation for this behavior?

Note: this question relates to game ID 10919506.