‘Bot’ calls paralyse opposition and BN candidates’ phones as polls open for Malaysia’s hotly contested GE

KUALA LUMPUR ― As voting got underway on Wednesday (May 9) for Malaysia's hotly contested General Election, several candidates from both sides of the political divide claimed to have come under "cyber attacks" involving repeated anonymous calls to their handphones.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has ordered for "immediate action to be taken", but did not spell out the specific measures implemented by the Malaysian authorities.

"I strongly criticise the tactic involving spam calls made from overseas which have been received by many BN leaders," he said in a tweet.

"Those whose phones were targetted were unable to communicate with anyone. Many of the Barisan Nasional websites also could not be accessed," he said.

According to some screenshots posted by the affected candidates, the anonymous calls appeared to have come from Malaysia and various cities in the United States.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement that initial investigations pointed to a "bots attack", but did not identify the likely source of the attack.

"We seek that everyone stop this act immediately and refrain from further use of such technical attacks as it could jeopardise the telecommunication network causing inconvenience to the public and a security risk," it said.

It advised those receiving these anonymous calls not to answer them.

"MCMC and the service providers are continuing to investigate and in the event that the initiator/s is identified MCMC will take stern action as provided by the law," it added.

Opposition leaders from the Pakatan Harapan pact and social activist groups such as Suaram and Bersih 2.0 were the first to report the deluge of anonymous calls on Wednesday morning.

Hours later, candidates from the ruling BN coalition also claimed to be under similar attacks.

Both camps alleged that the large number of calls had prevented them from communicating more effectively with their party officials, supporters and volunteers.

"BN leaders' handphones have been under technical attack since morning. Calls from overseas keep coming in every few seconds! To prevent us from communicating with our machinery. This is a dirty trick!" Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and BN's incumbent MP for Kota Belud in Sabah, wrote on Twitter.

Other BN ministers such as Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein also reported similar experiences.

"My phone seems to be under some sort of spam attack this morning. Strange," said Mr Khairy in a tweet with a screenshot of various overseas calls from the US and United Kingdom just after 10am.

In Penang, chief minister and Democratic Action Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng called the attack an attempt to "sabotage the electoral system".

"We have been paralysed by these bot calls that we can't talk to anyone and we can't contact our agents at polling centres," he told reporters.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president Lee Boon Chye said he started getting calls as early as 7.30am and they stopped only at around 9.30am.

"When we answered the call the caller just said 'thank you for calling this number' and put down the phone," he told the Malay Mail.

But the spam calls were not restricted to politicians or activists. Tan Sri Ali Hamsa, Chief Secretary to the Government, said he had been spammed over 400 times since morning.

"I myself got 488 spam calls since 7am. This is 'cyber attack' by irresponsible parties to disrupt #PRU14," he posted on Twitter.

Malaysia's National Cyber Security Agency had issued an advisory on Tuesday warning organisations to tighten their digital security amid expectations of a new wave of attacks.

It warned that the attacks could take the form of Distributed Denial of Service, web defacement, malware infection or even intrusion attempts. AGENCIES