
Brexit vote site may have been hacked, MPs say in report - jgrahamc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39564289
======
fredley
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_
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!

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btbuilder
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/...](https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmpubadm/496/496.pdf)

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grabcocque
'There is no evidence of malicious intervention'

Becomes

"OMG BREXIT WAS HACKED!!!" in the hands of a BBC clickbaiter.

Nice work.

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

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binarnosp
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
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
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.

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

~~~
aerovistae
"Ignore anything from the NYTimes with New York in the title, they are clearly
biased"

~~~
Safety1stClyde
Not really, there are two sides to the debate, and the BBC is clearly taking
one of them and not the other.

~~~
jlebrech
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
>> 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
i meant non-english speaking immigrants.

~~~
gambiting
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
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
It has actually changed recently so watching any content made by BBC requires
a licence, even if it's not live.

