MPs want to be reassured that Eurovision voting will be safeguarded from Russian threats

Rylan Clark is one of the presenters of this year’s event (Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

MPs have expressed they they want reassurance that voting during the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will be protected against cyber attacks from Russian agents, it’s been reported.

In May last year, after Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra were named the winners of the music competition, it was claimed by police in Italy that they put a stop to attempts by Russian hackers to attack the semi-finals and the grand finale of the event.

The previous week, a spokesperson from Eurovision said in a statement: ‘Every year the Eurovision Song Contest voting system has a wide range of security measures in place to protect the audience participation from outside influences. This year is no different.’

While speaking in the House of Commons, several politicians hoped to be reassured that the show won’t be impacted by outside, detrimental influences when it is hosted this year by the UK.

Michael Fabricant, the Conservative MP for Lichfield, stated: ‘Last year during the Eurovision Song Contest, Russian agents attempted to interfere with the voting that was being made for Ukraine.’

‘This year, of course, we’re hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. What is [the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology] doing to ensure that the integrity of the voting will be maintained?’ he said, according to Sky News.

Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won Eurovision last year (Picture: Kate Green/MTV/Getty Images for MTV)

In response, Paul Scully, a minister for technology and digital economy, stressed that the government is ‘always aware there are a number of possible threats to our system and our events’.

The politician then added: ‘I’m not able to discuss the details but the National Cyber Security Centre are world experts at understanding attacks and providing incident response for the most serious of attacks.

‘We want to make sure that all organisations are aware, so we can indeed keep that resilience in our voting process.’

Another obstacle that people are going to have to face on the day of the Eurovision final are pre-planned rail strikes.

Trade unionist Mick Lynch, the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, recently insisted that the strikes were not scheduled with the aim of purposely affecting the competition.

‘The reason we named that date is because it’s the last day of our mandate,’ he said.

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‘Our mandate runs out and we have to get another one, and we have to give two weeks’ notice, so when the talks broke down it was the only day. We don’t pick out events in our union.’

He added that he had ‘no interest in upsetting people where we don’t have to’, but acknowledged that strikes ‘have to be effective’ in order for them to ‘have some meaning’.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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Police in Italy claimed they put a stop to attempts by Russian hackers last year.