Illegal electioneering online

An aide to a ruling Grand National Party lawmaker has been implicated in a distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS, on the homepage of the National Election Commission on the day of the Oct. 26 by-elections, according to police. A secretary for Rep. Choi Ku-sik is known to have asked an acquaintance who was running a homepage design company to attack the commission’s homepage the day before the elections. The company owner, who was in the Philippines at the time, then ordered his employees to launch a vicious attack via more than 200 zombie computers, police said.

The commission`s homepage was shut down for more than two hours from 6:15 a.m. to 8:32 a.m. on the day of the by-elections due to the attack. Many claimed that young workers had difficulty voting because the breakdown of the homepage rendered them unable to check polling places. A police investigation confirmed this allegation. Choi`s staff member has denied involvement, however. Police must get to the bottom of this incident through a thorough investigation.

Choi was the head of promotion and planning for Na Kyung-won, the ruling party`s candidate for Seoul mayor. This has prompted opposition parties to raise the possibility that the ruling party was behind the attack. Choi strongly denied involvement, however, saying, “If I`m found to have been implicated in the incident, I will immediately vacate my parliamentary seat.” His pledge to resign if found guilty shows the gravity of the situation. Both Choi and his party should fully cooperate with the probe. If his staff member proves to be the culprit, the lawmaker and the ruling party should be held morally accountable though they are not directly related to the incident.

The homepage of independent liberal candidate Park Won-soon was also shut down twice on Oct. 26 from 1:47 a.m. through 1:59 a.m. and from 5:50 a.m. through 6:52 a.m. There could be a link between this and the attack on the election commission’s homepage.

Most of election monitoring activities and campaigns are performed via the Internet. Causing a hindrance to such online activities constitutes illegal electioneering. The cyber attack is nothing less than an act of preventing voters from casting their ballots. The commission is also at fault. Taking this opportunity, the election watchdog should bolster the security of its computer network and homepage.