One of the people in charge of a Hong Kong voting website has claimed that distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) have crashed the site a few days before it is running a poll on whether citizens want democratic reform in the former British colony. The unofficial referendum is meant to be a litmus test over how Hong Kong citizens view the pace of political reforms in the country after Communist Party leaders in Beijing promised change when it reverted back to Chinese rule in 1997. However, according to the site’s organiser Benny Tai, the system was flooded with “billions of visits” meaning that the poll on political dissatisfaction cannot be reached by voters at this time.
“We are considering, if the online system does not work as planned, we may extend the voting time so that we can get as many votes as possible, as planned,” said Tai.
“We had hoped to get around 200,000 votes, even 300,000. Nothing will deter us from going on. We will continue.”
He added that citizens will be able to cast their votes at 15 stations across Hong Kong on 22 June if the website remains down.
Full Article: Cyber Security Breach Threatens Hong Kong’s Democratic Reform ‘Referendum’.