On June 6, after the polls are closed, the votes will be counted and captured in the Preliminary Election Results Program system, an infrastructure that has been used since 1994 and that serves as the basis for giving anticipated results of the total count, without However, this system can be cyber attacked, according to various messages posted on Anonymous Mexico accounts.
The group of cyber activists claims that Russian hackers are interested in attacking next Sunday’s elections in order to weaken democracy.
“Cyberattacks, such as the one in the 2016 US elections, have made clear that democratic processes worldwide are susceptible to cyber threats and malicious influences, particularly from actors from other countries,” said Marcus Fowler, Threats Director. Strategic of Darktrace.
In October 2016, dozens of messages stolen from the Democratic Party and the collaborators of the candidate for the presidency of the United States, Hillary Clinton, were compromised and published, which lit up the focus of the reach that cyber attackers can have in these types of periods. elections and also began a search for the origin of the attack.
According to US information agencies, the group of pirates Fancy Bear was guilty of interfering in the election, in order to favor candidate Donald Trump.
In a survey conducted by the Organization of American States (OAS) of electoral officials throughout the Americas, it was revealed that, although 70% expect an increase in cyberattacks in upcoming electoral processes, more than half of the countries in the Americas do not they have the means or the technology to combat these threats.
“For security teams, this increasingly means relying on technologies, specifically the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, to augment human teams and allow them to engage attackers at the same speed of attack. AI-powered detection and response has proven to be an important ally not only in detecting targeted and stealth attacks, but also in stopping these attacks in real time, before damage is done, ”commented Fowler.
Just over a month ago, a report prepared by the cybersecurity firm Syhunt indicated that 31,995 passwords were leaked on a dark web site and these were related to the gob.mx domain.
“The possibility of ransomware against electoral institutions is always latent, but it increases especially during the election season, when elections are the subject of national attention. Cybercriminals could try to take advantage of pressure from national media and citizens across the country, to seek to get electoral institutions to pay a ransom and solve the problem quickly, ”says a Darktrace report.
Given numbers presented by the cybersecurity company Sophos, where it was estimated that 9 out of 10 Mexican companies paid in 2020, after being attacked with this type of cyber attack, the prospects for shielding the elections are uncertain.
“Organizations must not only take preventive measures, they must also have action plans against cyber attacks because hackers can and most likely will attack our elections. The cybersecurity challenge is no longer a scalable human problem, and leaders must rely on technologies to augment their human teams and help fight threats on their behalf, ”Darktrace noted.
