Russia’s E-Voting Blockchain Platform Attacked

Russia’s blockchain e-voting platform for President Vladimir Putin’s proposed Constitutional amendments reportedly suffered a node attack last weekend. The proposal if passed will allow Putin to serve as President until 2036.

Russia’s integration of blockchain-based voting is off to a bad start as the Bitfury powered system was reportedly attacked through an election observer’s node.

The attack occurred on June 27, according to Russian state media organization TASS. However, the media site reports that government officials insist the attack did not cause a system malfunction and all the votes that have been recorded on the blockchain are valid. Cybersecurity experts have reportedly attempted to restore access to the attacked node, however, it is unclear if they have been successful.

Russian Blockchain E-Voting Issues

The e-voting period is slated as June 25 to June 30 for residents of Moscow, with the node attack occurring on the third day. This was not the first issue with the blockchain system as previous reports claim the website for e-voting was inaccessible during the first few hours after it went live.

Further to being inaccessible, it appears to be less than tamper-proof, as a local journalist name Pavel Lobkov, shared a video discussing how he had managed to vote twice—once offline at the local polling station, and then again online less than an hour later. There were similar reports about multiple votes including one from a Russian national Yael Iliinsky who is based in Israel, she claimed she was able to vote three times and even her daughter—a minor—was able to cast a vote.

12 More Years of Putin

The Constitutional amendment proposal was first introduced on Jan 15, 2020, and if passed it would allow Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to serve for another two six-year terms. Should the Russian people vote against the amendments, Putin will have to vacate the presidency by 2024.