‘Foreign hackers a risk to voting process’

IRELAND’S voting system is at risk of hacking and outside influence, a new report on the security of Ireland’s electoral process will warn this week.

The first report of an interdepartmental group is being circulated to political parties and will be published within days.

The group has been looking at web traffic here, boosted in its urgency by an EU Commission communication in April about ‘tackling online disinformation’. Leo Varadkar warned last month that ‘foreign intelligence’ could interfere with the European elections due to be held in Ireland next year.

With a presidential election expected within three months, it is felt the risk has become much more immediate.

Mr Varadkar did not name any country, telling the Dáil: ‘It is now evident that there was external interference in the Brexit referendum and in elections in Ukraine and that there were attempts in France and Italy.’

Calls for controls were first made in the Online Advertising and Social Media (Transparency) Bill 2017, tabled by Fianna Fáil TD James Lawless – but later parked.

The Taoiseach told the Dáil recently: ‘Those who do not like Europe... would like nothing more than a European Parliament full of nationalists, populists and extremists.

‘We need to be wise to the fact... that there is a risk of foreign interference in those elections.’