Iander Porcella – With less than six months before the first round of October elections, Patricia Peck, digital law expert, says that Brazil is experiencing a “digital security crisis”, in her opinion, which could lead to cyberattacks and data hijacking on the internet. election season, arguing against fake news. In an interview with Broadcast Político, the lawyer said that crimes on the Internet can compromise political debate and affect the functioning of democracy.
“In cyber warfare, someone may want to seize money for the purpose of prosecution, for the purpose of voting, for the purpose of weakening a political opponent by releasing information, it can be become involved in electronic espionage,” he said. Peck, is a representative of the ESPM Law School and a member of the National Council for Data Protection (CNPD). “In the case of elections, it is possible to jeopardize the life of a party, of a candidate, just by stealing a file in the middle of a campaign.”
In the opinion of the expert, the change in habits in the disease – including the increase in remote work and cloud resources – will increase the vulnerability. As part of an attempt to solve the problem, it prevents the illegal classification of kidnapping data, by approving a bill initiated by Senator Carlos Viana (PL-MG).
Watch highlights from the interview:
Political Campaign – Has the attack increased in Brazil? Concerned about this feature?
Patricia Peck- We start the year 2022 with high alert for cyberattacks. Although the data protection law is gaining influence, we do not need to improve cybersecurity. What we have seen is the work by regulatory agencies that are bringing more requirements, so companies will have a more robust cybersecurity program.
Does this also affect politics?
When we look at the environment of political parties and candidates, although the guide developed by the TSE, together with the ANPD (National Data Protection Authority), published in January, talks about the LGPD (General Personal Data Protection Law) that is, the The advice on data protection and elections this year, we know that most of the political parties, and you are thinking about the start of campaigns, but not fully implemented data protection and cybersecurity measures. What is the sign of this? We have a high incidence of cyber attacks targeting public and private organizations and for political and electoral purposes. Brazil is experiencing a digital security crisis.
Does political polarization favor the rise of these cyber attacks?
What can be said is that we have built in the last two years, during the epidemic, a movement from common crime to organized crime. We have moved from business to digital, people carry less money, they are less. Criminals go to property and people. We started using Pix now, cryptocurrencies. So if organized crime has increased, with a greater use of cloud resources and telecommunications, with home access, these factors increase vulnerabilities. Therefore, if a person works in the political world, if he is involved in political trade, in a campaign, he becomes an agent of weakness.
Changing normal activities in the virus, then, like cyberattacks?
If I want to order an attack, and my target is a public organization, a private organization or a political organization, all three of them are suffering today from this problem that we brought to the creation of the remote workers, at home, using mobile devices, cloud sources. Those are the reasons. The reality of polarization can mean the will and desire to attack an opponent in a regime of impunity. Hence the importance of having specific laws against this.
Are the current laws not enough to prevent these crimes?
If you don’t change the law to combat this, you create a sense of impunity. In cyber warfare, anyone who wants to seize money for the purpose of prosecution, for the purpose of election, for the desire to weaken a political opponent by releasing information, can be as a means of electronic espionage. Part of the duel is in voting on the digital platform. The question is whether it is a democratic or fair place, or whether it is a criminal game, which cannot be done, such as attacks, leaks, things that are ordered to sabotage the opponents.
What can be done to prevent attacks? Can the program presented by Senator Carlos Viana (PL-MG) help?
There are two very good reasons in the proposed bill. First, there is an update to our electronic crime law. This is a responsibility of the Legislature, to go along with this change in criminal activity. If it becomes outdated, if the penalty method is incorrect, you cannot apply the penalty. The General Data Protection Law did not bring the criminal sector, so it depends on the extension.
And what is the second right?
The second advantage is to take away the error of taking computer data, because by reading what we have today, if you know that you can’t when it is set up correctly, you will continue to try to connect it by extortion, but not every type of data. Kidnapping can be a place of demand. You can create a folder that cannot be used, for example. This is a huge loss. In the case of elections, it is possible to affect the life of the party, of the candidate by simply taking a deposit between a campaign and that delay (the campaign).
We’re talking about cyber attacks and voting, but it’s always good to remember that electronic voting machines are not connected to the internet. Were they protected from an attack?
Today’s voting machines have a complete technical separation. I do not know this possibility (of attack). There is always a whole process of privacy, security, but the urn has this isolation of not being connected to the internet, so it will not be hacked, invaded.