Cyber Experts At Odds Over Voting Vulnerability

Following reported breaches of voter registration databases in Illinois and Arizona earlier this year, the majority of states, concerned about cybersecurity in the November election, are getting help from the Department of Homeland Security. But experts disagree about the serious of the threat, according to Fedscoop, a Washington DC media service that covers government IT issues. The threat of actual tampering with voting machines is considered remote, but according to the OSET institute, a Silicon Valley non-profit that monitors and works to increase the security of the election process, municipalities that use electronic voting machines without paper audit trails are the most vulnerable. A report from the cybersecurity firm Carbon Black concludes that tampering is “a very real possibility” and that “the potential for tampering, and overall doubts about election security, may play a role in keeping voters home on Election Day.” According to one expert, testifying before a subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, hacking into the machines themselves would be very difficult and would require physical access to individual machines.