Mérce, 444.hu, 24.hu, and the opposition primaries’ online system were all unavailable or faced disruptions for some time over the weekend. Lack of access, according to Mérce and the opposition primaries’ organizers, were clearly a result of overload attacks.
First it was 444.hu that underwent hours of forced suspension of service on Saturday. After it had been restored several hours later, there were reportedly several further downtimes in the evening hours on Sunday.
For a while, 24.hu was also unavailable on Sunday. At first, the site wasn’t reachable at all, during which time the editors posted the news on Facebook. 24.hu then went into emergency mode with a limited design and features, but has now been restored.
Mérce is also back in operation already. Data from the log files, however, suggest that the left-wing site had faced an overload attack, after millions of users had been visiting the site from only a small number of IP addresses, the site posted in a statement. “We don’t know who the perpetrators are yet, nor whether the attack was carried out on party orders or by private individuals,” Mérce added.
The opposition primaries’ online system was similarly under attack once again, according to organizer aHang. On the last day of the elections, the voting system became inaccessible from abroad, but voting from Hungary was also difficult at some points.
featured image via András Farkas/aHang/Előválasztás 2021’s Facebook page