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We Were Constantly Attacked, But None Found Their Way Through: Ife’s CIO
Technology Category
- Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Cybersecurity
The Challenge
The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico faced constant cyber attacks during the 2012 Federal Elections. The attacks were primarily Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS), aimed at disabling the services of the IFE. The institute had prepared for such issues months in advance, increasing the dedicated bandwidth for the election process over 600Mbs, 300 times over the average Web connection in Mexico. Despite the constant attacks, none were successful in disabling the operation of the Preliminary Program of Electoral Results (PREP) or IFE infrastructure.
About The Customer
The customer in this case is the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico. The IFE is responsible for organizing federal elections, which includes the election of the President of the Republic, Senators, and Federal Deputies. The IFE is also responsible for ensuring the legality and transparency of the electoral process. The IFE's technology strategy is led by René Miranda, the CIO of the institute. The IFE faced a significant challenge during the 2012 Federal Elections, as it was constantly under cyber attack. Despite these attacks, the IFE was able to successfully carry out its duties without any disruption to its services.
The Solution
The solution to the constant cyber attacks faced by the IFE was a robust cybersecurity strategy. The IFE increased the dedicated bandwidth for the election process over 600Mbs, which is 300 times over the average Web connection in Mexico. This meant that any attacker would need the same or double this capacity to crash the service. The IFE also had systems in place to detect and prevent Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS), which were the primary form of attack. Despite the circulation of false images alleging illegal access and alteration of numbers by the IFE, the institute was able to confirm that these images were faked and that there was never a record of a number alteration attack.
Operational Impact
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