14 DAY TRIAL // British members of the parliament fear that foreign governments such as Russia and China may have been involved in the technical issues the voter registration website had ahead of the EU referendum last year.
According to a report from the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee (PACAC), members of the Parliament expressed deep concern over allegations of foreign interference in the Brexit vote. While they do not go into detail about who may have been responsible, both Russia and China are named as countries that often use cyber attacks based on an understanding of mass psychology and how to exploit individuals.
Once more, the document discusses the claims that Russia has been involved in trying to influence the US elections, as well as the French presidential campaign.
The incident mentioned by the members of the parliament is the collapse of the government's website on June 7, less than two hours before the deadline set for people to register to vote in the EU referendum. This forced the government to extend the deadline so people could finish registering.
A change of story
Official reports at the time indicated the government was blaming high traffic to the collapse, as more than 500,000 people tried to register on that final day.
Now, the story has changed somewhat, and officials believe there were clues that a DDoS attack could have been to blame.
"The crash had indications of being a DDoS 'attack.' We understand that this is very common and easy to do with botnets... The key indicants are timing and relative volume rate," the report reads.
The incident had no impact on the outcome of the referendum, but the committee still fears this may have been the work of a foreign government.
"The US and UK understanding of 'cyber' is predominantly technical and computer network-based. For example, Russia and China use a cognitive approach based on understanding mass psychology and 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 reads.