We usually don’t think of hackers as doing any good for anyone. But the “ethical hackers” at the annual 2019 DefCon hacker convention in Las Vegas recently produced startling results about the security of our voting machines. With the blessings of the U.S. Government and others, hackers assembled over 100 voting machines to test their hacking vulnerabilities. The purpose behind the testing is to expose weaknesses in the hopes they will be fixed before the next election. Every one of the machines was breached and, in most cases, with little effort. That should be a huge concern for U.S. citizens and for our Democracy, especially in light of hacking concerns during the 2016 elections.
Started in 2017 at DefCon, a “Voting Machine Hacking Village” was created to address voting machine security concerns in the U.S. Cybersecurity researchers assembled over 100 voting machines purchased on eBay for the event. Not only was every voting machine hacked, it exposed the fact that old vulnerabilities were not fixed. In addition, new ways of hacking were discovered. The security flaws revealed anyone with access to the machines can breach them, and even more disturbing, remote hacking is possible. Also, poll workers who make mistakes or take shortcuts can put our election security at further risk.
Critics of DefCon’s election security efforts point out an unrealistic setting for the tests and fear public exposure of the flaws only serves to widen hacking efforts by others. Proponents of the DefCon findings believe it exposes that those with no prior experience hacking voting machines quickly found easy access. They point out that access was made in much less time than outside forces dedicated to breaching our elections may have already been doing for years. Some lawmakers are now considering using paper ballots to back up the results of our voting machines in the 2020 elections.
Whether a critic or backer of the DefCon findings, the result is that our free and fair elections are at risk by those who look to interfere in them. Although reasons for disrupting our elections may be many, the end result is that our long-held belief that our election results are legitimate is brought into question. DefCon’s hacking group produced a 47-page report of their findings and recently brought them to law makers in Washington DC. Time will tell if any action will be taken to correct this.
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