Did the National Election Commission (NEC) interrupt a cybersecurity checkup, denying access to some of its data in order to hide evidence of a rigged election? No, that's not true: The NEC voluntarily requested the cybersecurity checkup from the National Information Service (NIS) and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and there is no evidence that it obstructed the process.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published by @user4688440191613 on TikTok on October 14, 2023, under the title "#출처 #폴리티코 #정치연구소 #노태악 #중앙선거관리위원회" or "#From #Politiko #PoliticsResearch #NohTae-ak #NationalElectionCommission," translated from Korean to English by Lead Stories staff. It stated (as translated):
During the NIS checkup, NEC blocked the investigators from accessing the 4.15 parliamentary election. It is possible they deleted almost all data. They opened 5% of their server to NIS and it was all f**ked up.
The 4.15 in the above quote refers to the date of the parliamentary elections, held in South Korea on April 15, 2020.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Dec 21 05:26:14 2023 UTC)
The TikToker says that the video was uploaded from a YouTube channel called "Politiko Politics Research Center," under the title "부정선거 또 하겠다. 발표했다" or "They will rig the elections again. They said so," as translated from Korean to English by Lead Stories staff. It is no longer available on YouTube: All past videos have been deleted when the channel was updated.
The reference in the video is to a false claim that the 2020 parliamentary elections in South Korea were rigged by the government, already debunked by Lead Stories.
From July 3, 2023, to September 22, 2023, the NEC, the NIS, and KISA conducted a cybersecurity checkup on the NEC's voting system. The TikTok video claimed that the NEC was not cooperating because they did not want it to take place, and even restricted access to certain areas in the system, but there is no evidence of that. A search for "NEC interrupted cybersecurity checkup by NIS" conducted on December 28, 2023, (archived here) using Google News' index of thousands of credible news sites, did not reveal any report that could corroborate the claim.
The NIS and NEC issued separate press releases (here from NIS and from NEC, archived here and here, respectively) after they conducted the checkup, since they disagreed on the interpretation of the results. The NIS stressed the possibility, technically, of hacking, while the NEC denounced the NIS's claim, saying the manipulation of voting data would require the organized assistance of multiple insiders. However, both press releases confirmed that the checkup was requested by the NEC in the first place, and there was no mention of uncooperative behavior by the NEC, or any report of them deliberately interrupting the operation.
