Cyberattack Prevents Transmission of Election Results in Colombia

A cyberattack prevented the online transmission of results from last weekend's congressional elections in Colombia , while final returns have still not been released three days after the balloting due to organizational problems. Ivan Ribon, director of the Arolen firm, responsible for communicating the elections results over the Internet, told RCN radio Wednesday that his company had been targeted by hackers. The cyberattack initially led to intermittent updating of the returns from Sunday's balloting and later caused a complete loss of service. Once "the channels for communicating the results were opened, we began to notice (an abnormal number of hits) on the Web site ... an extremely large-scale attack that lasted all (Sunday) night," he said. The executive added that the Attorney General's Office was alerted to the problem and that a formal complaint will be filed Wednesday.