Ecuadorian National Elections Are Being Hacked Too

Candidates and journalists have had their social media accounts compromised and their names used to spread rumors against each other

Donald Trump might have been the first candidate to troll his way into the presidency of a country, but he is not the only Internet savvy politician out there. In 2008, left-wing candidate Rafael Correa championed YouTube and social media as part of his presidential campaign. With almost 3 million followers, he is one of the most influential Ecuadorians in the tweetosphere.

Rafael Correa’s Twitter Account is handled by the president himself. He often would require their public servants to answer citizens’ requirements by mentioning them on social media

The online strategy of the Ecuadorian Government is relentless and they have managed the generation of trending topics using mainly verified accounts and a broad range of supporters — some of them legitimate and some of them paid. Fighting a war against the “corrupt press,” president Correa has managed to dictate the headlines on several mainstream media and legally prosecute a couple as well.

Online trolls and government-backed hacking had been reported to operate in the country and the current national elections, to be held in May 2017, are already being fought online.

Presidential candidate Dalo Bucarám (329K followers), and vice-presidential candidate Andrés Páez (86K followers) were hacked on January 15th. Their twitter accounts were used to spread a chat allegedly taken from the latter taking about disagreements between the party and talking about a romantic affair. Several other accounts, including those of journalists Carlos Vera (330K followers), Juan Carlos Calderón (19K followers), and National Congresswoman Mae Montaño (12K followers) were pwned as well.

While the hacking was allegedly made under the name of Anonymous, the Ecuadorian version of this online guerrilla has declared that they have nothing to do with attacks. Because it targeted regime opponents, people have started linking these hacks to past reports of surveillance made by the government during elections, seeking to compromise journalists, politicians and civil society actors. It is important to remember that Ecuador was among the countries who purchased spyware provided by Hacking Team and used it for political purposes.

It is unclear whether these hacks are actually sponsored by the Ecuadorian government to support their candidate Lenin Moreno. Truth is the big amount of resources given to SENAIN, the local Intelligence Agency, has failed to prevent these and other digital attacks. If millions are spent in surveillance and penetration technologies, one would at least expect someone to be found guilty after hacking the elections. It might happen or not, but if it does, will it be too late?