TZUTC: -0500
MSGID: 1485.consprcy@1:2320/105 2d2812c5
PID: Synchronet 3.21a-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0
TID: SBBSecho 3.28-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0
BBSID: CAPCITY2
CHRS: ASCII 1
FORMAT: flowed
UK Electoral Commission finally recovered from China hack after three years
and 250,000 grant

Date:
Wed, 10 Sep 2025 14:28:00 +0000

Description:
The commission was publicly reprimanded after the security failings.

FULL STORY

After three long years, the UKs Electoral Commission is finally fully
recovered after a cyberattack that left the organisation reeling. 

The Commission was formally reprimanded by the Information Commissioners
Office over lapses in security that left millions of British voters 
vulnerable to hackers. 

Speaking to the BBC for the first time about the incident, the Electoral
Commission CEO Vijay Rangarajan, who was not CEO at the time of the attack,
says colleagues described the discovery of the hackers as "feeling like you'd
been burgled whilst still inside the house".

Insufficient protections 

There were six by-elections held in the time where hackers were inside the IT
networks, but the Commission has confirmed there is no evidence of any
tampering. 

The Commission used a 250,000 grant to aid its recovery, and is now spending
significantly more in its cybersecurity budget. 

That being said, the commission is still not aware exactly what information
was exfiltrated or what the hackers goals were with the intrusion. There have
been examples of network intrusions with severe consequences, with government
agencies and public organisations hit by ransomware attacks across the world. 

"All of this could have caused us amazing problems. It was a dangerous thing
to have happened," he said. "I don't think everyone realised quite how much
democratic systems and electoral systems were targets. We tended to be quite
comfortable in the way we run things. We now have to be really up to speed
with the threats," he said. 

In the past few years, elections over the world have been targeted, and
governments have faced a huge surge in cyberattacks from threat actors 
looking to disrupt democracy and undermine governments and processes.

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/uk-electoral-commission-finally-recover
ed-from-china-hack-after-three-years-and-gbp250-000-grant

$$
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
 * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)
SEEN-BY: 105/81 106/201 128/187 129/14 305 153/7715 154/110 218/700
SEEN-BY: 226/30 227/114 229/110 111 206 300 307 317 400 426 428 470
SEEN-BY: 229/664 700 705 266/512 291/111 320/219 322/757 342/200 396/45
SEEN-BY: 460/58 712/848 902/26 2320/0 105 304 3634/12 5075/35
PATH: 2320/105 229/426