Hacking attacks targeted Russian political sites and election monitors as Russians voted in parliamentary elections. Sites like radio stations, election monitors, and newspapers said they experienced sustained cyber attacks attempting to overwhelm their computers and knock them offline. Some organizations blamed the assaults on state-sponsored criminals. Groups critical of the ruling party's policies said they suffered hacker attacks in the run-up to the vote and on election day itself. The election monitoring group Golos said it experienced a massive distributed denial of service attack on election day as it compiled a map of reported election irregularities. Despite the attacks, Golos said it logged over 5,300 complaints of alleged election violations.

1. 'Hacking attacks' hit Russian politicalsites
SEDA SOYALP
Theattacksweremounted as Russianswenttothepollsforparliamentaryelections
Radiostations, electionmonitorsandnewspaperssaidtheycameundersustainedattack.
Thesites' ownerssaidtheywerebombardedwithdata in an
attempttooverwhelmtheircomputersandknockthem offline.
Some of theorganisationsinvolvedhaveblamedtheassault on state-sponsored "criminals".
OvertheweekendRussiansvoted in electionsthatdeterminedthemake-up of itslowerhouse, or
Duma, forthenextfiveyears.
Intherun-uptovotingand on thedayitself, manyorganisationscritical of thepolicies of
therulingpartysaidthey had sufferedattackbyhackers.
One of thehardesthitseemstohavebeentheelectionmonitoringgroup Golos, whichsaid it had
comeunder a "massiveDDoS (distributeddenial of service) attacks".
A distributeddenial of service attack is one in which a website is hitwithmanythousands of
requestsfor data. Unlesstheflood of requests is halted, sites can be knocked offline.
On votingday, Golos wascompiling a map of "electionviolations"
whichdetailedplaceswhereirregularities in voteswerebeingrecorded.

2. Despitetheattacks, Golos said it had beenabletologabout 5,300
complaintsallegingelectionviolations.
Golos headLiliyaShibanovasaidmountingtheattackswouldhavebeen a
"veryexpensiveoperation".
Shesaid: "It's a bigorganisationwithplenty of meansthatmusthavedone it."
'Violations'
TheMoscowEchoradiostation, oppositionnewspaper New Times, politicalcommentary site
Slon.ruanddailybusinesspaperKommersantalsosufferedtheattentions of
politicallymotivatedhackers.
MoscowEchoeditor-in-chiefAlexeiVenediktovtweeted: "Theattack on thewebsite on
electionday is clearly an attempttoinhibitpublication of informationaboutviolations."
The Russian arm of theLivejournalblogging site had
alsobeenintermittentlyavailableduringtheweekbeforevotingday as it
cameunderrepeatedDDoSattacks.
AntonNossik, mediadirector of LiveJournalowner SUP,
allegedthattheperpetratorswerecriminals, "probablyfattenedbythe federal budget".
Most of theattacksweredirected at groupsandmediaorganisationsthatopposethe Putin
government, but some Pro-Kremlin groupswerealsotargeted.
Youthactivistssaidtheir site whichloggedelectionviolationsbyoppositionparties had
alsocomeunder fire.