THE SME daily was unable to communicate with its readers on its website during the two most closely observed hours in politics this year.
Almost immediately after the polling stations closed and election reporting started, the website of Sme, which is the biggest news portal in the country and which has planned live reporting including debates, crashed.
The editorial staff of the website was without an internet connection, and the website of the daily was unavailable.
“It was exactly at 10 pm,” Konštantín Čikovský, Sme’s deputy editor-in-chief told the omediach.sk media news portal on the election night. “It was almost certainly a DDoS attack. The lines that go from Petit Press [the publishing house sheltering Sme as well as The Slovak Spectator – ed.note] out through Telekom were jammed.”
It took about one and a half hours for Telekom to take the necessary measures that allowed Sme to run the website at least in a limited capacity, Čikovský added, as reported by omediach.com. The server was reportedly receiving requests from all around the world, but mainly from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and Romania.
The website of The Slovak Spectator experienced similar problems.
One day before the election, the official website of Robert Fico as presidential candidate allegedly experienced a hackers’ attack as well .
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
