A hacking attack was carried out, according to information from SecNews, against the online voting website regarding the selection of the Greek product and service brand carried out by the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness!
On Friday, March 14, 2014 (about a week ago), the electronic voting for the selection of the brand/logo was launched under the auspices of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness. The selection was made by Greek citizens via the website https://ypanyp.gov.gr/index.php/poll
The 3 logos that were put up for selection concern the labeling representation of Greek products worldwide. However, some seem to have had a different opinion …
3 days after the website was announced, the responsible administrators were forced to suspend access to the website due to cyber attacks that had hit their infrastructure. The responsible administrators of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness, analyzing the attack logs, were surprised to find a huge number of IP addresses from abroad and their attempts to penetrate the website.
The element that led to further investigation of the incident and raised alarm bells is the fact that multiple votes from addresses abroad were appearing at a time when the plan was for only Greek citizens who were within Greece to be able to vote! After this incident, the authorities were forced to shut down the website and start the voting process again, essentially from the beginning!
The following cases were mentioned as examples :
[box_info]- From an email address (ip) originating from France, they voted 930 times for a specific proposal.
– From three email addresses (ip), originating from the Netherlands, they voted a total of 1358 times for a specific proposal.
– From two email addresses (ip), originating from Greece, they voted a total of 1307 times for a specific proposal.
– From an email address (ip), originating from Switzerland, they voted 565 times for a specific proposal.
– From an email address (ip), originating from Sweden, they voted 501 times for a specific proposal.
– From an email address (ip), originating from the USA, they voted 338 times for a specific proposal.
– From an email address (ip), originating from Germany, they voted 300 times for a specific proposal.[/box_info]
Based on this data, the Deputy Minister of Development Mr. Thanasis Skordas gave an order for the immediate cancellation and repetition of the related poll.
See the characteristic announcement issued by the Ministry on March 24, 2014, without giving further details about the attack.
[box_alert]
The Ministry of Development and Competitiveness announces that as of today, Monday, March 24, the online voting for the selection of the Greek Product and Service Mark will be repeated after the voting was interrupted on Thursday, March 20.
The vote is being held from today with stricter technical participation restrictions and additional security standards through the website of the Ministry of Development and will last 15 days. The results of the vote will be announced in the press and on the internet.
[/box_alert]
Apparently, the voting is now continuing smoothly without (we hope) any further interruptions and technical problems. In any case, we consider it appropriate for anyone who wishes to do so to choose the logo of their choice via the website https://ypanyp.gov.gr/index.php/poll.
