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Progress Securing Elections in 2018? US still using Outdated Machines

Do US voters have cause to doubt the security of their electronic voting systems this Fall? And what are the chances their personal information will be exposed or compromised? These two crucial questions are at the center of a core concern at less than two weeks from US elections on November 6^th, and as early ballots start trickling in.

Essentially – if the election system is not secure, the election results will not reflect the people’s vote – the cornerstone of democracy. But voters wouldn’t know voting has been sabotaged until it’s too late.

“The number and severity of vulnerabilities discovered on voting equipment still used throughout the United States today was staggering,” as was stated at DEFCON this year.

The major problem likely to affect midterm elections is that, while some states still use outdated technology, others such as Louisiana, Georgia and New Jersey have paperless machines, so reviewing and auditing voting results will be a challenge, while detecting a hack will be impossible.  As this article is written, a database of almost 35 million US voter records from 19 states is currently on sale on the dark web for $42,200.

According to a CNN report, the voting system is just as exposed as it was two years ago, as little effort has been made to improve the security of the nation’s election infrastructure. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Brennan Center for Justice, part of New York University School of Law, found that 41 states still use machines that are more than 10 years old and 43 states have voting machines that are long out of production.

The US Department of Homeland Security will offer to help states that want to check their systems for vulnerabilities but, because it’s voluntary, not all states are interested in participating.