CACTTUS, the company behind the application for the Central Election Commission (KQZ), has explained the reasons for the issues that occurred on the KQZ website during the elections on Sunday.
According to CACTTUS, the challenges arose from an unprecedented volume of traffic that overwhelmed the existing configuration of the CloudFlare application.
“The improper configuration of the CloudFlare application (which is the responsibility of ASHI/KQZ, not CACTTUS) led to an uncontrollable blockage of our application,” CACTTUS stated.
The company also reported that the KQZ website and other government infrastructure had been the target of continuous cyber-attacks, both on election day and continuing today.
“We also want to emphasize that the KQZ website and other government infrastructure have been targeted by ongoing cyber-attacks, including DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. These attacks aim to disrupt the normal internet traffic to a targeted server or network, in this case, KQZ and ASHI, by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. Essentially, it’s like blocking a highway, preventing legitimate users from reaching their destination. While the voting application itself remained secure and functional, these attacks posed an additional challenge in maintaining the website’s availability,” CACTTUS explained.
They are actively working with the Kosovo Election Commission, justice authorities, and relevant government agencies to mitigate these attacks and safeguard the integrity of the system.
