Specialized companies such as Fortinet assure in reports that the Latin American and Caribbean region suffered more than 360 billion attempted cyberattacks in 2022, which is why there are fears that the Salvadoran elections, which use electronic voting for the population living abroad, will be hacked I’m trying to change the results.
The enemies of these processes are adding more detection techniques and deploying more sophisticated attack alternatives to carry out their destructive attempts with advanced and persistent threat methods such as wiper malware or other advanced attacks, said Danny Cruz, country manager for El Salvador. and Honduras on Fortinet.
With these issues in mind, Mario Micucci, computer security specialist at ESET Latin America, warned of vulnerabilities in electronic voting. This type of coordination is not free from cyber-attack attempts, mainly due to the human factor that plays a role in the different phases, he said.
The Special Law on the Exercise of the Right to Vote Abroad, adopted by the Legislative Assembly on October 18, 2022, allowed remote voting via the Internet and in-person electronic voting for the election of presidential formulas and deputies.
According to the electoral calendar for voting abroad, the activation and operation of the system and computer application for exercising remote voting via the Internet will take place from January 6 to February 4, 2024.
The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) stipulates that the possibility of personal electronic voting will only be available on election day, i.e. February 4, 2024.
As of July last year, the electoral roll included six million 180,000 918 voters, of which 665,000 928 were resident abroad and only 190,000 415 would use the electronic voting system in person.
Assessing the situation, Micucci explained that cyberattacks in Latin America increased by 26 percent last year, to some extent due to the increasing digitalization in sectors such as the electoral sector, considering the introduction of electronic voting systems or hybrid systems.
He expressed that the security challenges with electronic voting are even more complex and since elections are a multi-stage process, from preparation to voting and subsequent verification, an appropriate security approach is required to ensure the integrity of the process.
The specialist claimed that multiple attacks could occur at each stage, especially because people are involved in each individual attack.
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