Comment by codedokode | Hacker News Reader

Comment by codedokode | Hacker News Reader

Shouldn't election be organized such that it cannot be disrupted by Internet attacks from abroad? At least not so easily.

Also, I tried opening the PDF [1] with so called "declassified report" and while I cannot read Romanian, the first header contains "TikTok" and I am left wondering how can one hack an election system using Tiktok? Did they count the votes using TikTok videos? And what about Telegram (mentioned nearby)? It doesn't even have a newsfeed. Oh those powerful hackers!

Judging by "distribuite numeroase imagini" and "blockarea accessului visual" (which almost sounds English), TikTok hacked their elections by simply refusing to block a video (or by blocking it?).

> Access credentials for election websites were stolen by threat actors and leaked on a Russian hacker forum

What a sad state of European cybersecurity. But this threat seems to be real, unlike the TikTok attack.

[1] https://www.presidency.ro/files/userfiles/Documente%20CSAT/D...

There are two separate issues: (1) TikTok favoring one candidate even after the campaign was over, and (2) an IT systems breach.

>TikTok favoring one candidate even after the campaign was over

This shouldn't be an issue because, the mainstream candidates where heavily favoured by the conventional media. If TikTok isn't allowed to publish media supportive of one candidate then the mainstream media shouldn't be either.

That's not how the law works in Romania. As a political candidate, your paid ads have to marked accordingly with a number that can be traced back and all donations and spending must be reported to a government authority.

One of the issues with this TikTok business was that many ads for Georgescu were not marked correctly, and thus in violation of electoral law.

There is no hacking. There was a massive campaign on TikTok for a candidate, that campaign was surprisingly effective, putting someone that most people never heard of, in the first place. That is now hacking, that is trolling grandmaster level.

And while I cannot read Romanian,

If you can use a mouse, and you know how to cut-and-paste -- you can read Romanian.

If you can't be bothered to do that, then I doubt anyone will be interested in your complaints about content of report, or your inferences as to its broader implications.

if you can't read Romanian then your insights into a Romanian report aren't very useful.

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