Russian hackers can influence the election of the Prime Minister

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson It already has over 100 Conservative MPs support that it needs to reach, if you so desire, toConservative party primariesTo replace Les Truss Sources from his campaign told the BBC on Saturday at the head of the formation and government. Also the former Minister of Economy Rishi Sunak He has crossed the 100 endorsements barrier, but he also hasn’t confirmed whether or not he will run for leadership.

Which is that the party started this internal process After Truss announced his resignation on Thursday. It did so as a result of the turmoil that its economic program, with the tax cuts it later had to reverse, caused in the financial markets.

Fear of Russian hackers

And in the midst of this chaos, Russia Minions can be willing to Lean on the scale From the race for the leadership of the Conservative Party, if a Online voting. This was recently warned by a high-ranking electronic expert, while GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters, one of Britain’s three intelligence agencies) has expressed concerns about an online operation, according to the Daily Mail.

Peter RyanProfessor of Applied Security at the University of Luxembourg, points out the presence of 180,000 and 200,000 members that could affect the outside, according to estimates. Which, according to the mentioned media, the party has a membership option called “Conservatives Abroad”, which states that “anyone living anywhere in the world can join abroad from just 25 pounds a year” (less than 29 euros).

“As an overseas member, you have Right to all benefits Party affiliation, including participation in a Conservative Policy Forum, attendance at party conventions, and a vote in electing a party leader.

In this way, the professor warns that although many Conservative overseas voters may be legitimate British citizens living abroad, others It could be “Russian dolls”. Thus, there is a fear that Russia is trying to influence the leadership vote somehow in Internet attack with pirates.

We don’t know much about the voters who appoint the leader of the G7 country. There may be many people abroad who are not even UK citizens. all we know, Russia could have signed a large number of customers“The source argues.” The voting margin last time was low, It won’t take much to change it“, Add.

Read also

For his part, the National Cyber ​​Security Center (NCSC)part of GCHQ, said the operation was vulnerable to interferenceWhich forced the party to delay sending the ballot papers. Those who chose Cast your vote online They had to send a one-time code and answer security questions.