MCLC: hackers disable HK referendum site

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: anne hennochowicz (annemh at alumni.upenn.edu)
Subject: hackers disable HK referendum site
***********************************************************

Source: The Guardian (3/24/12):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/23/hackers-hong-kong-civil-referen
dum

Hackers 'disable Hong Kong civil referendum website'
Poll set up to gauge how people would vote if election for territory's
chief executive were democratic
Reuters in Hong Kong

Hackers have disabled an independent Hong Kong "civil referendum"
aimed at gauging how people might have voted if allowed in a
scandal-ridden, undemocratic leadership election on Sunday, the
director of the initiative has told reporters.

The Hong Kong chief executive will be chosen by a 1,200-strong
election commission, stacked with Beijing loyalists, as public
frustration grows over the two leading candidates amid a series of
highly publicised scandals.

Hong Kong's 7 million people have no say in their choice of leader.
The territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the British
pushing China to grant it democracy, despite not offering this
themselves during more than 150 years of colonial rule.

The University of Hong Kong's "civil referendum" was launched to see
how people might have voted if given a choice.

It allowed people to vote by mobile phone or on the website
[https://popvote.hk/" title="] and operated normally when it opened on
Thursday but then crashed due to what the director, Robert Chung,
called "high-level cyber attacks" that crippled servers.

"We do not quite understand the motive," he told reporters on Friday.

Chung's polls have in the past sparked the ire of mainland Chinese
media organisations and officials. A December poll on the extent to
which Hong Kong people identified themselves as Chinese citizens
dropped to 17%, the lowest level in 12 years. Chung was subsequently
denounced by a mainland propaganda official in Hong Kong while
mainland media accused him of fomenting unpatriotic sentiment and of
having "evil" political aims.

Chung said around 14,000 responses had been received in the civil
referendum. Despite the technical difficulties, he said he was hopeful
of 100,000 eventual responses.

"We hope we can preserve this opportunity for people to vote," he said.

The textiles tycoon and former senior official Henry Tang was once
widely considered Beijing's preferred candidate for the top job, but
political sources and the media have suggested a shift in allegiance
to his rival, Leung Chun-ying.

Tang has been tarnished by an illegal construction scandal and
self-confessed marital infidelities, while Leung faces a conflict of
interest investigation connected to a construction project and
accusations of running a dirty election campaign.

With China facing a critical leadership transition later in the year,
scandals are an unwelcome distraction in the small but influential
city whose moves towards full democracy have antagonised China's
Communist leaders since 1997.