Russia Claims Massive Cyber Attack on Moscow Electronic Voting System

Head of Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) Ella Pamfilova stated on Saturday that Moscow's electronic voting system came under a massive and intensive cyber attack overnight on September 18-19. The attack coincided with Russia's three-day parliamentary elections.

Scale of the Attack

According to Pamfilova, the attack continued nearly uninterrupted throughout the night and was still ongoing in the morning. The head of Moscow's city election commission, Olga Kirillova, had also reported cyber attacks on the electronic voting system before the announcement. Despite the reported attack, Pamfilova insisted the remote electronic voting system in Moscow continued to operate normally and that no voting interruptions occurred.

Context: Russian Elections Under Scrutiny

Russia is conducting three-day parliamentary elections from September 17-19. The vote has been widely described by analysts as a referendum on the war in Ukraine. Previous Russian elections have faced multiple accusations of fraud and manipulation. It is unclear who is responsible for the reported cyber attack, though Ukraine and Western-aligned hackers have previously targeted Russian state infrastructure during election periods.