Pro-Russian hackers bomb Belgium but pose no threat to elections

The Center for Cybersecurity in Belgium (CCB) emphasizes that these attacks are not dangerous. This is a “simple” DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) operation, by which the targeted servers are flooded with an astronomical quantity of requests, which ends up paralyzing them. So don’t panic.

Communales 2024 – Cyberattacks: no risk of interference in elections, reassures De Croo

Psychological warfare

But we vote on Sunday for the municipal and provincial elections: the results of hundreds of small ballots will have to be counted, formatted electronically, communicated. Could malicious forces serving a hostile power (Russia, China, etc.) destabilize our democratic process? The CCB spokesperson wants to strongly put this risk into perspective. “The cyberattacks of Monday and Tuesday mainly aim to influence the perception of the general publiche immediately qualifies. This is clearly the goal. These were just websites that were rendered non-functional by a saturation of requests. These are easy attacks to carry out, they do not involve any computer intrusion or data theft.“

Is the Kremlin hiding behind the pro-Russian hackers at work at the start of the week? It could be tempting for the Putin dictatorship to disrupt the daily life of a country that supports Ukraine. “These above all psychological acts are organized by nebulae of activists, based on different networks, who have various interests. There may be a state actor behind it, yes, although it is difficult to sayreplies the representative of the Center for Cybersecurity. In any case, we see that these hackers have pro-Russian sympathies. But do they simply want to make themselves known or do they have a real goal of political destabilization of Western regimes? There is probably an agenda linked to the proximity of local elections.“

“Russian cyberattacks pose a global threat”

No risks for Sunday

The electoral process is therefore not threatened, according to the CCB. “I don’t see how these cyberattacks could have the slightest influence. Voting, even when done electronically, is processed by machines that are disconnected from the internet network. Furthermore, all the players involved in the computer processing of elections are truly prepared for these situations. All institutional partners are able to deal with this type of cyberattack, which is ultimately quite banal.. The impact of the attacks on Monday and Tuesday was, for example, the website of your municipality which was unavailable for a few hours. As much as possible…“

What is the plan planned for Sunday, in the event of larger-scale malicious actions? “There is a device but I won’t go into details. I can just tell you that all the actors are prepared and placed under our supervision. On June 9, during the general elections, there was no problem. We were well prepared“, concludes the CCB spokesperson.