A website built by volunteers to trawl through publicly available General Election Commission (KPU) data and conduct its own informal vote count came under attack from hackers on Thursday, according to the site’s founder — a day after it published data showing Joko Widodo in the lead. “Our team is fighting; there are only five of us against hundreds,” KawalPemilu.com founder Ainun Najib told news portal Tempo.co on Thursday. Ainun, a former International Math Olympiad champion, said the attacks began on Wednesday afternoon after news spread that the site had posted data showing Joko Widodo and running mate Jusuf Kalla ahead with just under 53 percent of the vote.
As of Thursday afternoon, the the Jakarta Globe was unable to access the site. Ainun did not elaborate on the nature of the attacks but said that they originated in Indonesia. He did not say if the site had been targeted by denial of service attacks. He was not available for immediate comment.
He told Tempo that he had hired two information security experts to help protect the site and posted a potential workaround on Twitter. The website was equipped with standard security measures, he said, but attackers were able to circumvent them.
Full Article: Volunteer Indonesia Vote Count Website Under Attack – The Jakarta Globe.