Foreign states may have interfered in Brexit vote, UK MPs say

A foreign power may have been behind the crash of a key voter registration website in the run-up to the EU referendum last year, an influential group of MPs has concluded

The voter registration site may have been hit by 'botnets' ahead of the EU referendum
The voter registration site may have been hit by 'botnets' ahead of the EU referendum

Foreign governments such as Russia and China may have been involved in the collapse of a voter registration website in the run-up to the EU referendum, a committee of UK MPs has claimed.

A report by the House of Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee (PACAC) said MPs were deeply concerned about the allegations of foreign interference in last year’s Brexit vote.

The site was launched to ensure as many people as possible voted in the historic referendum. It collapsed on 7 June, 100 minutes before the deadline, forcing ministers to extend the deadline to register to vote in the EU referendum.

The collapse resulted in concerns that tens of thousands of people could have been disenfranchised.

Ministers have stated this was due to an exceptional surge in demand, partly due to confusion as to whether individuals needed to register to vote.

While accepting there is not direct evidence of an attack, the committee report said “we do not rule out the possibility that there was foreign interference in the EU referendum caused by a DDOS (distributed denial of service) using botnets, though we do not believe that any such interference had any material effect on the outcome of the EU referendum.”

The committee did not identify who may have been responsible, but has noted that both Russia and China use an approach to cyber-attacks based on an understanding of mass psychology and of how to exploit individuals.

The findings follow repeated claims that Russia has been involved in trying to influence the US and French presidential elections.