Website mimicking that of EC traced to US-based Google server

By Chaminda Silva

The Election Commission (EC) has enlisted the help of the police cyber crimes unit to investigate a phishing website mimicking the EC’s official site and attempting to gather personal information from Sri Lankans.

Election Commissioner General Saman Sri Ratnayake said that the fraudulent website, hosted on a US-based Google server, had been flagged by the Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT).

Ratnayake said that a request had been made to the police cyber crimes division on Saturday, and a court order sought to ask Google to reveal the identity of the site’s creator. The fake site was detected by SLCERT on Friday night. Its link has been circulated via WhatsApp, X and other messaging platforms, falsely claiming the EC is recruiting for election-related roles and soliciting sensitive personal data, including full names, dates of birth, and contact numbers.

Ratnayake said that though the fraudulent web was hosted from a US based server, it could be operated from anywhere in the world, as such it was too early to attribute this fraud to a specific country.