More than a thousand cyberattacks against Russia’s electoral process; Pamfilova mentions Ukraine

Russia’s parliamentary elections, which have been taking place since Friday, have been accompanied by more than a thousand cyberattacks against infrastructure linked to the voting process, according to the country’s Election Commission.

The head of the institution, Ella Pamfilova, said that Russian systems involved in organizing the elections had been targeted. The information was published by Russian news agencies.

These were DDoS attacks, a technique that aims to send an extraordinary number of requests to computer systems at the same time, overloading them and preventing them from operating normally.

Pamfilova said the attacks were carried out by “highly professional and well-coordinated” groups that, according to her, also used artificial intelligence tools. She added that most of the attacks came “from abroad.”

In addition to election infrastructure, she said, telecommunications networks in Russia were also targeted. The head of the Election Commission claimed that the attacks “bear signs of interference by Ukraine.”

However, the claim regarding the origin of the attacks has not been independently confirmed.

Russian authorities also announced on Saturday, during the second day of voting, that the electronic election system had been hit by a “very powerful cyberattack.” According to them, the attack continued throughout the day.

Internet voting is taking place in around 30 areas of Russia.