Another article from McClatchy: Georgia election officials knew system had ‘critical vulnerabilities’ before 2016 vote <read>
Georgia election officials got a friendly warning in August 2016 that their electronic voting system could be easily breached.
But less than a month before the November election, a state cybersecurity official fretted that “critical vulnerabilities” persisted, internal emails show.
The emails, obtained through a voting security group’s open records request, offer a glimpse into a Georgia election security team that appeared to be outmatched even as evidence grew that Russian operatives were seeking to penetrate state and county election systems across the country…
The disclosures add to alarms about the security of Georgia’s elections — not only in 2016, but also heading into this fall’s midterm elections.
“I think these emails reveal that they recognized this system was catastrophically insecure,” said Robert McGuire, a Seattle lawyer representing citizen activists in a lawsuit that seeks to force Georgia to scrap its paperless electronic voting machines this fall and shift to paper ballots.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp, whose office oversees the state’s elections, says he was unaware of the system vulnerabilities at the time. Kemp, the Republican nominee for governor in this fall’s election, still maintains Georgia’s system is secure…
As a result, experts say, the system may be an inviting target for operatives from Russia and elsewhere to install software that manipulates votes without detection.
Georgia: Are you sure you want this man to be your Governor. Are you sure you actually can participate in that choice?
