OSCE Project Co-ordinator provides solutions to enhance protection of Ukraine’s State Voter Register from cyber threats

On 28 November 2018 Ukraine’s Central Election Commission (CEC) installed equipment and software provided by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine for ensuring comprehensive technical protection of the State Voter Register, as part of efforts aimed at enhancing security of election administration systems from digital threats. This is an important step in the implementation of the CEC’s plans to enhance the cybersecurity of election administration during the 2019 votes.

The received systems of hardware and programmes make it possible to identify threats, prevent intrusions and respond to a range of possible cyberattacks.  By the end of November this year the CEC personnel will receive relevant training on the management of these solutions. 

“In today’s world powered by technological advance, it is a vital necessity to constantly upgrade defense against cyber threats. We hope that with our assistance both the personal data of Ukrainians and their right to vote in elections will be better protected,” said Jeffrey Erlich, Senior Project Officer of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

“Through such comprehensive solutions, the system will be able to respond to threats and anomalies at various levels - workstations, network, and servers, as well as to various kinds of threats such as antivirus, spam, external network attacks or intrusions,” said Oleksandr Stelmakh, Head of the State Voter Register Administration.

The Chairperson of the CEC, Tetiana Slipachuk, emphasized that this timely technical assistance was a good illustration of the stable and effective co-operation between the CEC and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in the field of elections and, specifically, election cybersecurity.As of 10 October 2018, the State Voter Register contained personal data of more than 35.6 million Ukrainians eligible to participate in the presidential and parliamentary elections envisaged to take place next year.  The Register in digital form was established in 2007 with the Project Co-ordinator’s support in order to improve the accuracy of voter lists and ensure the effectiveness of election administration. 

The purchase and delivery of equipment is part of a project implemented by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator with the financial support of the Government of Norway and the United States Mission to the OSCE.