As Los Angeles County prepares for the procurement and manufacturing stage of its nationally-recognized Voting Systems Assessment Project (VSAP), Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan is focusing resources on election security. “Amid continuous investigation of attempted nation-state hacking of voter data and ongoing concerns about the age and technical vulnerability of the voting equipment used in the United States,” said Logan, “it is imperative that next generation voting systems like the one we are developing in Los Angeles County are equipped to deliver voters a secure, usable and transparent voting experience.”
Later this month, Logan is sending Information Technology staff to the annual DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas, where a “Voting Machine Hacking Village” will be set up to identify vulnerabilities and susceptibility to hacking of commercial voting equipment. The DEF CON agenda also includes database hacking simulations and training on how to detect and respond to system penetration and disruption attacks, said County Administrators.
Logan emphasized election security is multi-faceted, including: the physical environment in which equipment is programmed and deployed; the firmware and hardware components of the voting system and, ultimately, human-readable paper ballots of record with post-election audits.
Full Article: County Sets Its Sights On Updated, ‘Secure’ Voting System.