With less than a week until the UK General Election takes place, attention is turning towards the danger of cyber criminals or state actors hacking into party, governmental or parliamentary systems, or disrupting the voting system itself. With similar attacks hitting both the US and French presidential elections, such concerns are founded in reality — but does that necessarily mean such an attack is likely? The IT Pro team considers the possibility that our democracy is the next area to be disrupted.
Hacking can be extremely dangerous if electronic voting is in use, as it allows unknown actors to tamper with the internal affairs of a country. The debate over the electronic vote still goes on in some parts of the world, such as Argentina, but what we saw recently in the US should encourage governments to slow down their approach to using technology in a democratic process which should easily be carried out with a pencil and paper.
Hackers can also influence elections by leaking classified information. Will we see Corbyn’s private emails leaked or May’s texts exposed before 8 June? It remains a possibility. It’s not only during the election that we should be worried about the power of technology, either. There needs to be a push for change in the way society addresses dangers such as hacking and threats to privacy.
Full Article: Should we worry about election hacking? | IT PRO.