4 ms·

Brexit vote site may have been hacked, MPs say in report

18 points by jgrahamc 10y ago

jlebrech 10y ago
ignore anything from the bbc with brexit in the title, they are clearly biased.
- aerovistae 10y ago
  "Ignore anything from the NYTimes with New York in the title, they are clearly biased"
  - Safety1stClyde 10y ago
    Not really, there are two sides to the debate, and the BBC is clearly taking one of them and not the other.
    - jlebrech 10y ago
      they could have been a lot more balanced as half of their viewership that pay for a tv licence voted out, they are promoting their own downfall. they are highly pro immigration, whether immigration is a good thing or not they are siding with their own downfall as immigrants don't pay for tv.
      - gambiting 10y ago
        >> as immigrants don't pay for tv Wait, what? Why wouldn't they? I'm an "immigrant" in the UK and I pay for the TV licence. Unless you just make a blanket statement that is designed to make to lump all immigrants into one bag of people who don't pay tv licence?
        jlebrech 10y ago
        i meant non-english speaking immigrants.
        gambiting 10y ago
        Then post some data to back this up! Everyone watching live TV in the UK has to pay the TV licence fee or they will be heavily fined - and I'm 100% certain the enforcement agency doesn't give a damn whether you speak English or not, they will fine you anyway. I'm also extremely curious what % of immigrants to UK doesn't speak English, if you really want to follow your line of logic.
        jlebrech 10y ago
        it used to be that if you watched any British TV you had to pay for a licence, but now it has to be live.
        gambiting 10y ago
        It has actually changed recently so watching any content made by BBC requires a licence, even if it's not live.
grabcocque 10y ago
'There is no evidence of malicious intervention' Becomes "OMG BREXIT WAS HACKED!!!" in the hands of a BBC clickbaiter. Nice work.
- Safety1stClyde 10y ago
  Also no actual notion of why preventing late registrations would have benefited one side or the other.
binarnosp 10y ago
Why should somebody go through the hassle of register himself for voting? Where I leave all the persons eligible for voting receive the voting certificate one month in advance. An ID card and the certificate are all you need to enter the polling station.
- fredley 10y ago
  Because people move, and you need to be registered to vote in the right constituency and polling station (and those need to be well positioned/balanced so that too many people aren't voting in once place - which could mean some are unable to vote due to queues). Being able to vote anywhere is not an option - it would required digital voting, which we do not want.[1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI
  - bragh 10y ago
    I wish that you could explain that in Estonia. Around here, anyone doubting e-voting is viewed as part of the fifth column and mocked like a 9/11 truther even by fellow techies, who really ought to know better.
- flexie 10y ago
  Officially, because they don't have registration of all citizens, unlike in most of Europe. In reality, maybe also because someone prefers that young people, poor people, immigrants etc don't vote to the same extent as other groups.
  - vilmosi 10y ago
    Oh come on, if someone is interested in voting, they will register to vote, simple as that.
    - flexie 10y ago
      No, it actually matters a lot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_registration#Effects_and_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_registration#Effects_and... Requirements for registration is just one way to make voting hard. Others include requirements that voters cast their vote where they have official address, if change of address is cumbersome or expensive.
fredley 10y ago
I was 'in the room' when this happened. From the people monitoring the site and getting it back online there was no suspicion that the amount of traffic was high enough to be considered a DDOS, it was just a small, low-traffic service that got unexpectedly crushed a là many that get suffocated by HN. I suspect other reasons for bringing this up now.
- grw_ 10y ago
  You expected the registration site for a national referendum in which 45 million people voted to be "a small, low-traffic service"? No surprise it collapsed!
btbuilder 10y ago
Directly from the report[1]: "We do not rule out the possibility that there was foreign interference in the EU referendum caused by a DDOS (distributed denial of service attack) using botnets, though we do not believe that any such interference had any material effect on the outcome of the EU referendum." This is not hacking, this is a statement that says we can't say for sure that the additional load wasn't a DDoS attack. [1] https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmpubadm/496/496.pdf https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/...

18 points by jgrahamc 10y ago

jlebrech 10y ago

ignore anything from the bbc with brexit in the title, they are clearly biased.

aerovistae 10y ago
"Ignore anything from the NYTimes with New York in the title, they are clearly biased"
- Safety1stClyde 10y ago
  Not really, there are two sides to the debate, and the BBC is clearly taking one of them and not the other.
  - jlebrech 10y ago
    they could have been a lot more balanced as half of their viewership that pay for a tv licence voted out, they are promoting their own downfall. they are highly pro immigration, whether immigration is a good thing or not they are siding with their own downfall as immigrants don't pay for tv.
    - gambiting 10y ago
      >> as immigrants don't pay for tv Wait, what? Why wouldn't they? I'm an "immigrant" in the UK and I pay for the TV licence. Unless you just make a blanket statement that is designed to make to lump all immigrants into one bag of people who don't pay tv licence?
      - jlebrech 10y ago
        i meant non-english speaking immigrants.
        gambiting 10y ago
        Then post some data to back this up! Everyone watching live TV in the UK has to pay the TV licence fee or they will be heavily fined - and I'm 100% certain the enforcement agency doesn't give a damn whether you speak English or not, they will fine you anyway. I'm also extremely curious what % of immigrants to UK doesn't speak English, if you really want to follow your line of logic.
        jlebrech 10y ago
        it used to be that if you watched any British TV you had to pay for a licence, but now it has to be live.
        gambiting 10y ago
        It has actually changed recently so watching any content made by BBC requires a licence, even if it's not live.

grabcocque 10y ago

'There is no evidence of malicious intervention' Becomes "OMG BREXIT WAS HACKED!!!" in the hands of a BBC clickbaiter. Nice work.

Safety1stClyde 10y ago
Also no actual notion of why preventing late registrations would have benefited one side or the other.

binarnosp 10y ago

Why should somebody go through the hassle of register himself for voting? Where I leave all the persons eligible for voting receive the voting certificate one month in advance. An ID card and the certificate are all you need to enter the polling station.

fredley 10y ago
Because people move, and you need to be registered to vote in the right constituency and polling station (and those need to be well positioned/balanced so that too many people aren't voting in once place - which could mean some are unable to vote due to queues). Being able to vote anywhere is not an option - it would required digital voting, which we do not want.[1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI
- bragh 10y ago
  I wish that you could explain that in Estonia. Around here, anyone doubting e-voting is viewed as part of the fifth column and mocked like a 9/11 truther even by fellow techies, who really ought to know better.
flexie 10y ago
Officially, because they don't have registration of all citizens, unlike in most of Europe. In reality, maybe also because someone prefers that young people, poor people, immigrants etc don't vote to the same extent as other groups.
- vilmosi 10y ago
  Oh come on, if someone is interested in voting, they will register to vote, simple as that.
  - flexie 10y ago
    No, it actually matters a lot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_registration#Effects_and_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_registration#Effects_and... Requirements for registration is just one way to make voting hard. Others include requirements that voters cast their vote where they have official address, if change of address is cumbersome or expensive.

fredley 10y ago

I was 'in the room' when this happened. From the people monitoring the site and getting it back online there was no suspicion that the amount of traffic was high enough to be considered a DDOS, it was just a small, low-traffic service that got unexpectedly crushed a là many that get suffocated by HN. I suspect other reasons for bringing this up now.

grw_ 10y ago
You expected the registration site for a national referendum in which 45 million people voted to be "a small, low-traffic service"? No surprise it collapsed!

btbuilder 10y ago

Directly from the report[1]: "We do not rule out the possibility that there was foreign interference in the EU referendum caused by a DDOS (distributed denial of service attack) using botnets, though we do not believe that any such interference had any material effect on the outcome of the EU referendum." This is not hacking, this is a statement that says we can't say for sure that the additional load wasn't a DDoS attack. [1] https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmpubadm/496/496.pdf https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/...