A hacker tries to access and alter data from an electronic poll book in a Voting Machine Hacking Village during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on July 29, 2017.
Credit: Resuters/Steve Marcus
Hackers from around the world had the rare opportunity to crack election-style voting machines this weekend in Las Vegas — and they didn’t disappoint.
After nearly an hour and a half, Carsten Schürmann, an associate professor with IT-University of Copenhagen, successfully cracked into a voting machine at Las Vegas’ Defcon convention on Friday night, CNET reports.
Schürmann penetrated Advanced Voting Solutions’ 2000 WinVote machine through its Wi-Fi system. Using a Windows XP exploit from 2003, he was able to remotely access the machine, CNET reports.
Voting technology was thrust into the political spotlight when election systems in several states were targeted by Russian cyber attacks. The convention purchased more than 30 voting machines for the event, although, organizers didn’t specify how many models those units represented.
“The exposure of those devices to the people who do bug […]
This seems like a particular bad time to find out about the problem with an important election coming up in November. I wonder if there is enough time to fix it before the election, and how it might effect the outcome if it’s not fixed.
Old News? Publication Date: July 30, 2017, 11:18 PM
I didn’t run it Karl because it was new news. I ran it at this time, to make the point with data not speculation how vulnerable the American electoral technology is, and how easily it is to hack it. I don’t think people fully comprehend how fragile our electoral system is.
Many flaws in the electronic voting systems have been noted since they were created. These “flaws” seemed to be features that has been useful in past elections by those who count the votes, mostly impossible to prove though.
Now others outside our political system have the ability to mess with the count. In a recount many systems have no paper trail. I have always wondered why machines could not print a “receipt” like an atm to be deposited in a ballot box.
It would seem though that the main point of Russian interference is not so much to push the elections results one way or the other but to sow chaos, confusion and conflict. This would amp up the trumpian madness that has taken over our country. I’ve got to believe that most Russians are amazed at how easy it has been to manipulate the American political system.