Rogue states could try to cast doubt on Tory online vote, experts say

If there are two candidates remaining in the race after Monday, Tory party members will take part in an online vote to decide the new prime minister.

The National Cyber Security Centre, an arm of the GCHQ spy agency, contacted the Conservative party over its leadership voting preparations on Thursday, having also intervened before the previous leader ballot.

That August intervention resulted in the party enhancing security around the voting process, but it is understood that NCSC has not advised changes to the voting system this time.

Cybersecurity experts contacted by the Guardian said altering the leadership result would be difficult for any hostile foreign state, including Russia. However, they said disrupting the process via false claims about the integrity of the process, or hampering the vote with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, could have an impact among the wider electorate by discrediting the ballot.