The recent Democratic National Committee server hacks, as well as the ever reliance on voting technology has this years election stirring up a storm of grave security concerns. Today Tech 2U is here to weigh in on the role of technology and ask the question, could the US election get hacked?
The hacking of the DNC is very concerning to tech industry professionals. Personal data was stolen with the intent to weaponize the information that could help sway public policy. Security officials believe that Russia was behind the leak as it is a common practice in both Russia and China. These sort of hacks and leaks put power into these other countries hands and gives them influence over our nations leaders and governing process. The likely hood of more attacks is very high as the Federal Office of Personnel Management was also hacked in 2015 leaking personal information on government employees.
The voting process itself is reliant upon technology and is vulnerable to hackers. Although there is no evidence that electronic voting has been compromised, security analysts agree that here are vulnerabilities in the systems. Symantec recently tested out a voting booth and was able to vote hundreds of times using the same smart card. They also hypothesized that he transfer of data form the voting machines to the servers in the county could be compromised. Since every country can use whatever voting platform they want they might not have the machines that Symantec hacked.
It is impossible to tell if the voting systems will be compromised this voting season. With recent hacks, suspected vulnerabilities, and an election that has the world watching, there is definitely a chance that something could go wrong. However there are lots of security teams working hard to ensure safe and fraudulent free voting and even with the new voting systems, it is estimated that around 75% of Americans will be voting on paper this year.
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