Wednesday, February 11, 2026

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Record submissions on Treaty Principles Bill spark cybersecurity concerns

Treaty Principles Bill

The unprecedented influx of over 150,000 submissions to Parliament’s website in a single day has raised questions about potential cyber interference, with some experts pointing to the possibility of a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack.

Despite this surge surpassing the previous record of 107,000 submissions for the 2021 conversion therapy ban, technical experts remain divided.

Speaking to state media, Rik Roberts from Inde Technology suggested that automated bots could have inflated the numbers, while Louisa Taylor observed signs of a possible DDoS attack due to the website’s apparent lack of protective measures.

However, cybersecurity expert Sam Sehnert noted the submission form’s defenses against bots, deeming a sophisticated attack unlikely without state-level resources.

The Clerk of the House, David Wilson, and the National Cyber Security Centre have found no conclusive evidence of malicious activity, attributing the website’s issues to overwhelming public interest.

Calls for robust DDoS protection highlight the vulnerability of high-profile public platforms in an era of generative AI and increased digital threats.

Image credit: Shubham Dhage

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7 COMMENTS

  1. This is wildy speculative and the article fails to referance any evidence of an attack. 150,000 submissions is hardly a large number in terms of daily site queries.
    Do the IP address logs show a large number of queries from overseas IP addresses?

    • It’s not 150k queries, which yes, is pretty normal, but 150k submissions, which is not. There’s a big difference between queries and actual submissions.

  2. Ha ha 😂 the woke left leaning government employees and the woke extreme left meida are turning into conspiracy theorist when things don’t go their way. Saying a whole heap of crap with no proof to back it up. How about you wait until you have proof instead if a couple of nobody’s opinions

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