It is worth noting that a report from FCO Services highlighted that no DDOS attack was ongoing at the
time of the incident.
The government tells us that the voter registration process for the Brexit referendum was not ‘hacked’ and that the crash of the registration site was due to unprecedented demand…so why is the BBC giving a claim that the system was hacked such high credibility and prominence when even in the MP’s report it is a very minor claim coming after a long explanation of why the system actually crashed?…Why is this the claim that the BBC zeros in on?….
Brexit vote site may have been hacked, MPs say in report
A voter registration site that crashed in the run-up to last year’s EU referendum could have been targeted by a foreign cyber attack, MPs say.
The “register to vote” site crashed on 7 June last year just before the deadline for people to sign up to vote.
The UK government and electoral administrators blamed a surge in demand after a TV debate.
But MPs on the parliamentary Public Administration Committee say a foreign cyber attack could not be ruled out.
The MP’s evidence for that?…
Although the Committee has no direct evidence, it considers that it is important to be aware of the potential for foreign interference in elections or referendums. The report on lessons learned from the website crash described it as “technical in nature, gaps in technical ownership and risk management contributed to the problem, and prevented it from being mitigated in advance”. However the crash had indications of being a DDOS (distributed denial of service) ‘attack’.
No, no it didn’t…there were no indications of a DDOS attack and the MPs provide absolutely none to back up that claim….a claim that the government itself denies…..
It is worth noting that a report from FCO Services highlighted that no DDOS attack was ongoing at the time of the incident.
The BBC itself acknowledges that and yet puts the claim up in the headline…
“There is no evidence to suggest malign intervention. We conducted a full review into the outage and have applied the lessons learned. We will ensure these are applied for all future polls and online services.”
Cybersecurity experts are sceptical.
“I think there’s lots of conjecture,” says Ollie Whitehouse at NCC Group. “It appears to be one committee’s opinion but with no supporting evidence.“
The MP’s only ‘evidence’ is pure speculation…
‘…it’s not unreasonable, given there’s quite a lot of this going on in other countries, that this could have happened in this case.”
Despite all that being nonsense the BBC still gives credence to the idea in its summing up…
The committee called on the government to set up a new Cyber Security Centre to monitor and contain potential attacks on UK elections and referendums – particularly foreign attempts to influence public opinion and disrupt the democratic process.
“The US and UK understanding of ‘cyber’ is predominantly technical and computer-network based,” said the report.
“For example, Russia and China use a cognitive approach based on understanding of mass psychology and of how to exploit individuals.
“The implications of this different understanding of cyber-attack, as purely technical or as reaching beyond the digital to influence public opinion, for the interference in elections and referendums are clear,” the report added.
Legend will slowly become ‘fact’ as the BBC knows full well and this no doubt will be the subject of many a BBC programme with the presenters pushing the idea, keep spreading doubt and confusion, that this was ‘possibly’ a cyber attack whatever the evidence may show in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of Brexit….just as the New European is doing…
Hacked off: Did Russia or China try to influence Brexit vote?
A voter registration website that crashed in the run-up to the Brexit vote may have been brought down by foreign hackers.
The Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) said it was deeply concerned about the allegations of foreign interference in last year’s EU referendum vote.
While the committee did not identify who may have been responsible, it noted that both Russia and China use an approach to cyber attacks based on an understanding of mass psychology and of how to exploit individuals.
The warning comes amid repeated claims that Russia has sought to interfere in foreign elections, including last year’s US presidential election.
The official voter registration website on crashed June 7 last year just hours before the deadline for people to sign up to vote in the referendum.
The BBC et al knows well the time honoured practice of telling a big lie often and loudly until it becomes fact.
The BBC is busy doing what it does best…undermining democracy…the enemy of the people? I’d say so.
Why? ‘Tell it often enough’ #101
I thought the deadline was extended for a period longer than the website was down?
Also, Like debate about Climate science, debate about Brexit was always beneficial for the Leave side, so the website crash after a debate would have harmed the Leave side.
Also I remember that the most serious foreign attempt to influence public opinion and disrupt the democratic process, was by a speech from Obama.
Also the BBC uses a cognitive approach (false balance) based on understanding of mass psychology (consensus) and of how to exploit individuals (Guardian readers)
Even if there was a cyber attack to attempt to deliberately prevent registration who benefits? Why would it help the Freedom vote any more than the Hate-Britain one?
At least the ridiculous claims that electronic votes were changed in the US election has some logic, but this has none at all. Even in the US election any evidence of votes being changed after being cast is purely anecdotal, and seems that if there were any it was Rep votes being changed to “Dem”.
“GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT INCOMPETENCE SHOCKER!”
I don’t want to sound dim here as the referendum was about a year ago and my memory is fading… as the ‘Remaniacs’ should in all reality. But I seem to remember the last one and a half hours were lost to voters before the voting deadline, and they opened voting for another ten hours when they reinstated the system.
To my mind that benefitted both sides equally and as such didn’t discriminate against ‘leave’
I stand to be corrected.
As another possible memory sufferer, I would weigh in just to point out you omitted the word registration. It was for on-line voter registration.
The vote itself on 23 June was by Polling attendance only unless registered for, completing and despatching a postal vote.
You make however an essential point reflecting that of Demon’s above: the benefit or harm to any one side was potential equal with that for the other.
Up2snuff
Corrected I stand!
Now I’ll go and lie down in a dark room…..actually it’s ‘Good Friday’ I’ll go for a pint instead!
Classic BBC pincer movement from the left, and, er, left.
And here’s Andy waxing lyrical on his unique style in…. surprise…. the Graun:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/live/2017/apr/10/andrew-marr-webchat-the-history-of-modern-britain?
There are two different suggestions that are being conflated here:
“The US and UK understanding of ‘cyber’ is [1] predominantly technical and computer-network based,” said the report.
“For example, Russia and China use a cognitive approach based on understanding of [2] mass psychology and of how to exploit individuals.
“The implications of this different understanding of cyber-attack, as purely technical or as reaching beyond the digital to influence public opinion, for the interference in elections and referendums are clear,” the report added.
The report appears to be saying that the US and UK are alert to the possibility of digital/cyber attacks, (e.g. DDOS, where lots of false traffic is generated to overload the system), but not to mass psychology, (the Chinese post videos of kute kittens and the yoof and BBC Trending put all their efforts into watching and re-posting them instead of voting?).
One excellent method of bringing a site down is to tell lots of people to log on at the same time. All you need is a national broadcasting network, … a bit like the one the BBC has.
Which is why the server went down immediately after the last debate …… It was timetabled too close to the end of voting…. all a DDOS attack does is bombard servers ports (particularly email designated ports) with requests for confirmation of connection from the internet…. Had it been a genuine DDOS attack the servers would have been compromised during the downtime as a DDOS attack is merely a means to compromise a servers security whilst an open port xploit is found via port scanning and then once found a malicious code is then placed within it`s database…
Apart from a server connection overload no such xploit was implemented perhaps Cameron should have spent a little less on the leaflets telling us all not to leave the EU and spent some of our 9 million on better servers etc instead!!!
I think it is good that the BBC is pursuing this. They should be encouraged. It is a serious matter. One that relates to everyone. It may have consequences. 😉
The reports demonstrate what we already know: that most MPs and government staff (e.g. IT) are inept, and that bBBC ‘reporting’ is a disgrace.
The succinct Equal Experts report is clear that the crash was due to technical issues. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/569606/
register_to_vote_website_lessons_learned_review_for_cabinet_office_2016.pdf
The rambling Committee report appears to acknowledge this (para 86 onwards), but their paras 102-3 ‘Cyber security of elections’ are just speculation. Moreover, why (para 104) the Committee recommendation for ‘permanent machinery for monitoring cyber activity in respect of elections and referendums’?
In a sane world this should already have been in place, shouldn’t it? https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmpubadm/496/496.pdf
I think we all know why the BBC does this type of stuff – Because it can.
It has become a a politically motivated organisation that will use any piece of news as an opportunity to undermine our democracy and society and push its own agenda.
It is why every time a Jihadi terrorist commits an act of violence in the west the BBC is more concerned about the far right”backlash” than the victims of any atrocity.
It is why it tries to re-write history in its dramas to show any “effnik” as noble and oppressed compared with evil whitey.
It is why a veil is always drawn over sharia law and its oppression of women whilst complaining vociferously if female Executives earn 5% less than male counterparts in the City.
It is why child rape of white teenagers by followers of the religion of peace is downplayed whilst at the same time sexing up any “hate crimes” such as the effnik shed burning spree (well one), Koran dumping or bacon crimes by whites to epidemic proportions.
It is why it has set itself up as some sort of moral arbiter making lofty pronouncements about its concerns about “fake news” whilst at the same time manipulating the news agenda and often telling downright lies.
I could go one but we all know the truth on these matters. I think the BBC hopes that because it obviously possesses such a finely tuned cerebral morality that us unwashed oiks obviously dont have, maybe we should phase out democracy and replace it with a more “fashionable” system where decisions are made by only the very best people such as Cleggy/Farron/Blair/Lammy/Fatbot . An elite if you like.
Remember apparently none of us knew why we voted brexit and those that did were just waycists! Since we all made the “wrong” decision why dont we in future let Aunty make the hard decision for us.
The BBC in effect has become a political agitator. But it only does this stuff because it knows our weak minded and feeble politicians do not have the balls to to call it out and stand up to it. The result is always the same, the agenda being pushed a little bit further to the left and the constant erosion of common sense to politically correct opinions which do not reflect the true state of affairs.
Drip, drip, drip – This whole organisation is incontinent and awash with falsehoods and will never be able to stop until someone finally has the guts to pull the plug. However with the selection of jokers and straw men and women currently running the country I dont recommend that anyone holds their breath.
Oak,
Top post. The BBC are pushing a Marxist agenda and the dim and weak political elite do nothing. I cannot remember any time when we had such low quality politicians. I would not employ most of them to clean a toilet.
Grant – I think in some ways the likes of “call me Dave” sum up everything that is wrong with much of our society – weak, cowardly, vacuous, and completely lacking in any integrity.
Oak,
Yes, utterly worthless and Treezer is just as bad. Total nonentities.
I can only speak for myself, and I know it is childish, but whenever I see an announcement (usually on the bBBC) about a new government web site, Census, road fund tax, etc, I can not resist trying it out straight away. This usually results in the site falling over, and me sitting with a big grin on my face. Its good fun. If they ever get to the point where the web sites they create work properly then I will stop helping them test them.
Am I to understand, that all this “election was hacked” kerfuffle by our political and MSM elite, is simply another way of saying that they think that the electorate are simpletons (deplorables in the US), and can be easily made to vote against their own preference?
What I do know is that politicians can be made to vote anyway one likes by
1. Money
2. Threat of being deselected.
So where is Rory “kerfuffle” Jones when you need him BBC?
This has got to be one of the IT technology brainless claims around.
DDOS is a primary tool used by criminal gangs. These gangs compromise personal pc’s with virus’s which allow the gangs to take control of them and they become BOTS.
The primary purpose of DDOS is blackmail. The normal targets are big commercial operations that rely on the Internet to run their business. The typical example are on-line casinos. The gangs turn the BOTS on a target using up all its bandwidth to the extent that it cannot respond to the requests being made. As mentioned above the MSM and primarily the BBC caused a simulated DDOS.
Having activated the DDOS attack the gang then send a ransom request to the site owner demanding millions to stop the attack. In most cases they just pay because the losses involved will amount to many times what they pay in the ransom demand. In most instances they do not even report the event to the authorities. The authorities as a general rule are unable to assist anyway since the gangs are normally foreign and the BOTS are so dispersed it is impossible to deal with.