It seems there is some sort of data breach or hack every day; sometimes the hack is as simple as finding an open database, sometimes it’s a phishing attack, sometimes it’s getting into a network through an IoT device like a printer or even a thermostat.
As we enter the era of electronic voting machines, we have reasons to be concerned – these devices can be as suspectable as any other internet enabled device but with so much more on the line if something goes wrong.
In fact, according to Reuters the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, a division of the Homeland Security Department, fears voter registration databases could be targeted by ransomware, where elections could be thrown into turmoil by the deletion of verified voter data, throwing elections into chaos.
While Cloudentity, working with BPro, provides the Identity and API security tools that help secure the data, there are still questions about physical access to e-voting machines and how to better secure the polling place, and not turn it into an entry point for hackers and other bad actors.
Carnell Council, an AT&T Cybersecurity consultant, wrote a great article about E-voting machine vulnerabilities and remedies to consider. In it he discusses the Argonne National Laboratory's vulnerability assessment team findings in their study looking at e-voting machines, encryption and other issues with physical security.
In his article, he references that the Argonne study, “concluded that successful tampering with just one in three voting machines is enough to change the outcome of an election.”
This is a fairly frightening number, and knowing state sponsored actors have been proven to be targeting voting systems in all 50 states, it’s a serious issue to address now.
For more details on how to secure physical e-voting machines, take a look at Carnell’s article over at the GCN website at
Limiting the cyber threat to elections infrastructurehttps://gcn.com/articles/2019/05/03/securing-election-infrastructure.aspx
There are a lot of moving pieces in election systems, but with the right tools, and the right knowledge, we can all help to keep these important systems secure and working properly.