FBI Says It Has Detected More Attempts to Hack Voter Registration Systems

[pnwmom]

Source: SLATE

FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday there is evidence that there have been additional attempts to hack state voter registration systems than those that were previously known. Comey didn’t elaborate on the number of attempts or verify where they came from during his House Judiciary Committee testimony, but there has been concern that Russian operatives, in particular, could be able to cause havoc in the election process. Comey said the FBI is looking "very, very hard" at the Russian links and the agency issued a cyber-security warning to state and county voter registration offices last month.

"There have been a variety of scanning activities which is a preamble for potential intrusion activities as well as some attempted intrusions at voter database registrations beyond those we knew about in July and August. We are urging the states just to make sure that their deadbolts are thrown and their locks are on and to get the best information they can from DHS just to make sure their systems are secure," Comey said. "Because there's no doubt that some bad actors have been poking around."

Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/09/28/fbi_says_it_has_detected_more_attempts_to_hack_voter_registration_systems.html

[olddad56]

1. so ditch the electronic voting systems until they are safe and use a manual system.

otherwise Vladimir Trump will be our next President.

[still_one]

4. You can still use electronic voting, but have it in a closed system, so it is local to the

polling place

[dflprincess]

7. That's what we have in Minnesota

and we have paper ballots and election day registration so even a purge of the lists would not be successful.

[still_one]

9. I like it

[Midnight Writer]

11. There you go. A simple common sense solution. Not everything needs to be "linked in"

Each polling place has a list of registered voters, collects and tallies it's own vote results, and calls them in to a central location. They keep a paper record of every vote in case of controversy or questions.

There is no need for voting machines or registrations to be connected to the internet.

[pnwmom]

8. It's the registration system they're talking about. So we could go to the polls

and not find our names there.

[groundloop]

10. EXACTLY.... Purge a few thousand Democrats from each district

Many many voters, if they go to the polls and are told they have to jump through hoops to vote, will simply say screw it and not vote. If it were widespread enough it could sway a swing state or two.

[randr]

2. Is there a way to check if States are following protocol?

[Foggyhill]

3. If there is a "hack", it would be through social engineering someone who works for those company

That's how 90% of so called hacks originate: phishing malware
The Iranian nuclear power plants were infiltrated by the US or Israel in just that way.

People are the biggest security risk around.
So, either it would be an inside job (Snowden exploiting lax internal security at the NSA of all places), or more likely, inside idiocy (most other hacks, like the Sony one).

You can sort of avoid that by limiting access to sensitive networks and services to only those that need to have them (separating them completely internally with strict access control to the secure networks), sadly that's not done very often because of laziness.

[mitch96]

5. In a way I think this is good

The more eyes looking at the way we log votes the quicker glaring problems will show up...... I hope
I forgot who said it but the quote goes something like "it's not the votes, it's the vote counters that matter".
m

[Worktodo]

6. Electronic voting has no real safeguards

The only way to safeguard the vote is to produce tangible unalterable records that can be double checked.

For example, each vote produces two receipts -- one for the voter and one for the polling staff. You as a voter would be able to scan a QR code (or enter a number) on the receipt and view the electronic record of your ballot.

This would allow each voter to verify their vote was correctly counted (and provide voters a method of proving that electronic tampering occurred.) The receipt kept by the polling place would allow a recount to be performed if necessary. This system would provide transparency while retaining privacy.

[Nitram]

12. I suspect that our antiquated system that varies siggnificantly forom state to state...

actually makes it impossible to hack the entire system all at once. More difficult, more time-consuming and more likely to get caught if you have to hack 50 different systems.

[Sunlei]

13. recently some federal court said they found no fraud in voter system but had some 'concerns' about

"fraud? in the mail-in system". Some news story I read a couple months ago, don't really have time to review news stories today.

[Old Vet]

14. This should be of GREAT concern to most............

One can imagine how easily it is to rig these machines, YES, It can make a profound difference in the outcome.

[ananda]

15. I vote a mail-in paper ballot in Travis County (Austin, TX).

I think it's a convenience afforded to seniors (and possibly
the disabled). They started this a couple of years ago, but
I don't expect the Texas leg to make it available to everyone,
which is what they should do.