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Ukraine and Germany have been accused of crashing an app used in the past weekend’s national election in Bangladesh through a cyberattack. Mohammed Jahangir Alam, official secretary of the Bangladesh Election Commission, did not specify the type of attack or the reason behind it. Alam blamed Ukraine and Germany for the disruption.
The Smart Election Management BD app is not used for voting, but is used for citizens to stay updated on the elections. It also offers access to historical and current data on electoral candidates and associate parties, and identifies voter turnout information. Targeted DDoS attacks were not ruled out as a cause of the app’s malfunction, but researchers from Cloudflare say that botnets operating within Ukraine and Germany could have been the cause of the issue.
Many national elections are taking place in several countries this year and many threat actors have been increasing their influence efforts. Some nations are training their staff in electoral cyber threats as a result.
Read More: Bangladesh Election App Crashes Amid Suspected Cyberattack