Cyber attacks launched against Colombia’s electoral body during congressional elections in March allegedly came from an IP address belonging to the national police, reports El Tiempo.
The attack, which was launched from Bogota, Medellin and Bacarumanga, affected 1.7 million records in the election body’s database on March 13 and 14.
According to police officials, all police computers use the same IP address. An internal investigation conducted by the police did not find any irregularities, and police say an investigation conducted by the prosecutor general’s investigative body CTI “found nothing suspicious.”
The investigation, which was aided by firm Andalid Abogados, found activity the day before the March 14 elections from the police IP address. The attacking computer was looking at private information from the registry. They also found that there was “excessive” web traffic, and “unusual requests” made to the web server. The registry web page crashed because it was receiving 70,000 hits per second.
Registry official Carlos Ariel Sanchez said he is confident that the Prosecutor General’s Office will find those responsible for the hacking.
“The intent of this attack was to alter electoral data and make an impact on public opinion,” Sanchez said. “Now that they know the IP addresses, justice must determine who or to what organization they belong.”