TSE assumes DDoS attack brought down e-Título app during elections

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) assumed that the DDoS attack who suffered during the first round of municipal elections on Sunday (15) “may have caused instability in the e-Título application and in the electronic judicial process system (PJe) ”.

In a press conference held during the elections, Minister Barroso had said that the DDoS attack had nothing to do with the fall of the e-Título app, with the fall of the TSE website, with the delay in counting votes, much less leaking employee and server data.

Barroso’s justification for the instability of the app was that the TSE had shut down a server to guarantee a backup in case of a successful cybercriminal attack and that the app fell due to the high amount of users online. “We shut down a server to guarantee and left a server, which is, due to the excessive demand of the last hour, presents instability“, said.

However, in a press release published on Thursday (19), the TSE informs that although it is not yet related to the delay in the calculation, the attack may have been responsible for the fall of the e-Título app.

“The cyber attacks against the TSE recorded on election Sunday are not related to the delay of two and a half hours in the dissemination of the voting results, but may have caused instabilities in the e-Título application and in the electronic judicial process system (PJe) ”, Says the statement.

The TSE website and the e-Título application had technical problems since before the election. The site went offline on Thursday (12) and Friday (13) and the app crashed during the election Sunday. The Hack newsroom contacted the TSE about the downfall of the site, but has yet to receive a response..

Minister Barroso determined the creation of a Cybersecurity Commission, to assist the Federal Police in investigating Sunday’s attack (15). “The commission, which will be chaired by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, will also prepare studies on actions to prevent and deal with illicit activities resulting from the action of hackers,” writes the court.

“The commission takes into account that, on the day of the first shift, ‘incidents occurred on TSE’s online systems potentially stemming from cyber attacks carried out in a criminal manner and through coordinated group action with the purpose of damaging the electoral process’, says the TSE note.

Source: TRE.