Over the last few years, we have provided many posts on the real risks of Internet voting. A new report and article highlighting that report, remind us all of the risks of voting machines in use several years ago: Hack the vote: Cyber experts say ballot machines easy targets <read>
Reminder: We are still using those machines.
Voter fraud is nearly as old as elections themselves, and different states and precincts use different voting systems and machines. But in many cases, even the electronic ballots could be manipulated remotely, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Security and Risk Management for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. That report found that the AVS WINVote machines Virginia has used since 2002 have such flimsy security that an amateur hacker could change votes from outside a polling location.
“This means anyone could have broken into the machines from the parking lot,” said Cris Thomas, a strategist with the Columbia, Md.-based Tenable Network Security, one of the nation’s leading cyber and enterprise security firms. “…
“Anyone who thinks that there are not folks out there – from lone hackers to foreign governments – who are willing to exploit the security vulnerabilities of our election system is living in a fantasy world,” said [Hans] von Spakovsky…
[Chris] Thomas said. Manufacturers are not sufficiently testing systems before selling them to municipalities, often using off-the-shelf hardware and software with minimal security; and local government certification agencies seldom have the time, resources or knowledge to properly test machines for vulnerabilities and often just accept the manufacturer’s claims for security…
