Cybersecurity at referendum, Viminale armour data: double track against attacks

In view of the referendum, the Viminale has set up a dual-track system to strengthen cyber security and reduce the vulnerability of data transmission. The most delicate point, for the Ministry of the Interior, does not concern the substantive data of the vote, but the immediate communication of information from the peripheral offices to the centre, a flow that also passes through digital networks and that, precisely for this reason, requires enhanced protection.

The aim of the Viminale's strategy is to avoid, especially in the phases immediately following the opening of the polls, compromises or alterations that could create confusion and affect the public debate. The double track serves to make the system less attackable and to strengthen the tightness of the computer channels that accompany the collection and transmission of data.

The Viminale makes a clear distinction between the digital transmission of information and the proclamation of results. The computer systems are being strengthened to protect the communication of data, but the final proclamation will continue to take place in the traditional manner, which is considered unalterable in terms of substance.

This choice aims to armour the referendum on two levels: on the one hand, the protection cyber of information flows, and on the other, the confirmation of the traditional system for validating the result. On e-voting, the Ministry of the Interior recalls that some experiments have already been carried out, but that the time is not yet ripe to go beyond the current model.

However, the issue of cyber security is part of a broader picture. According to the intelligence services, among the most relevant threats are growing disinformation campaigns and the spread of deepfakes, tools used as part of the hybrid threat to strike a country below the threshold of conventional armed conflict.