A new report by the Canadian Security Establishment (CSE), the agency in charge of protecting the country’s telecoms networks, states that the number of elections targeted by cyberattacks has “more than tripled” between 2015 and 2018 among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
In 2018, half of (OECD) members that held national elections were targeted. According to the report, the cyber attacks were carried out by “[a] small number of nation-states” of which Russia was the most prominent actor. The CSE believes that interference campaigns have become more popular in large part due to the perceived success of Russia’s campaign targeting the 2016 US presidential election.
The OECD is an intergovernmental organization compromised of 36 countries, including the US, that claim to be committed to democracy and the free market.
Read more: Leap in Cyber Attacks Against Elections in OECD Countries: Canada