What if a foreign head of state had the power to handpick our next President? It sounds like the plot of a movie, but it actually might be in the realm of possibility.Most people take our elections for granted. The few who don’t often suspect that one party might be trying to steal votes from the other. But they don’t envision that the theft could be coming from outside US borders.What experts are telling us, though, is that our voting machines are so insecure that all elections, whether at the national, state, or local level, are vulnerable to being attacked by hackers in other countries. … Given that the security at some of our most protected institutions can be breached, and given that US elections pose an enticing target for our adversaries, what would prevent a foreign agent from hacking our ballot boxes? The answer: Not much. Experts indicate that the election systems in place today do not provide the adequate protection that would be able to stop a foreign hacker — a hacker anywhere, in fact — from rigging our races. Even worse, these attacks could go undetected.
… Take internet voting, also known as iVoting, which allows citizens to vote through an online portal or by e-mail or by fax. If not encrypted properly, these transactions could be compromised.
Jonathan Katz, Director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, observes that even if a system appears safe, voting online allows hackers to examine the system for points of vulnerability. “I wouldn’t necessarily go so far to say that everything done over the internet is insecure, but you are certainly opening yourself up to the potential for hackers to look at your system and try to find vulnerabilities,” Katz told WhoWhatWhy.
Since 2000, numerous computer and voting experts, including the National Science Foundation, have authored studies warning about the serious vulnerabilities of iVoting. Some of these studies cite unsuccessful internet voting systems that have been implemented in such countries as Estonia, France, and Norway. One report, produced by computer scientists at the request of the Pentagon, examined a pilot iVoting project and concluded that an internet- and PC-based voting system presented “fundamental security problems” that couldn’t be fixed without a “radical breakthrough.”
Full Article: Foreigners Could Hack US Elections, Experts Say – WhoWhatWhy.