Despite finding no signs of foul play during the 2016 elections’ actual ballot-casting, state officials told the Election Assistance Commission they are looking to shore up the cybersecurity of voting systems to ensure that Americans are confident in their election results. Director of the New Jersey State Department’s division of elections Bob Giles said at an EAC meeting Feb. 13 that although “cybersecurity wasn’t as big a concern” entering the 2016 election because his state’s voting machines were not connected to the internet, the attention garnered by Russia’s reported electoral influence has led to a rethinking of his agency’s cybersecurity protocols. Giles said cyber hygiene practices such as improving password strength and multifactor authentication will be included in the state’s plan to modernize its voter registration system.
“The other thing we heard a lot about this election is who is making our voting machines, and… are foreign countries owning voting machines in our country?” he said, adding that moving forward, New Jersey will partner with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure voting machine security.
Another important tool for establishing electoral integrity is an auditable record of each state’s votes. David Wagner, a member of EAC’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee, said, “the number one most important thing we can do for cybersecurity is make sure the systems are auditable.” He conceded election auditing “can’t prove that there was no hacking, but what it can prove is that the outcome was called correctly” and that there are no patterns of voting irregularity.
… The Electronic Frontier Foundation, however, has lobbied for auditable paper records in all 50 states — warning that “voting machines, especially those that have digital components, are intrinsically susceptible to being hacked.” Several states’ election systems still lack any sort of paper trail.
Full Article: Should Americans trust their voting tech? — FCW.