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Russia's cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump's election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported.
In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.
[...] The new details, buttressed by a classified National Security Agency document recently disclosed by The Intercept, show the scope of alleged hacking that federal investigators are scrutinizing as they look into whether Trump campaign officials may have colluded in the efforts. But they also paint a worrisome picture for future elections: The newest portrayal of potentially deep vulnerabilities in the U.S.'s patchwork of voting technologies comes less than a week after former FBI Director James Comey warned Congress that Moscow isn't done meddling.
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday June 17 2017, @04:04AM (1 child)
The weak point in manual counting, at least in a close election, are the absentee voters. We just had an election here in BC which was close to a statistical tie, takes 44 seats to clearly win, results on election day were 43-41-3 with one of those 41 winning by something like 8 votes. Lots of people like me voted before election day, those ballot boxes were put away and the recount and the counting absentee votes took over 2 weeks. While it is easy to verify the election day votes just by standing around and watching the manual count, those absentee ballot boxes, there has to be some trust. Where they're kept for the 3-4 weeks before counting them and how secure their location is. In our case the recount and absentee ballots just made the 8 vote winner into a 150 or so winner and I'm sure if the government was cheating, they would have arranged to win that seat and get their 44 but the count could have easily changed the results and given the government a clear mandate to continue.
Close elections are interesting in our Westminster type Parliamentary system, it'll be the end of this month before the Legislature decides on who is going to govern and even the Queen, or rather Her Lieutenant-Governor might have to make an executive decision on who governs or even if we have another election.
BTW, the 3 seats that decide on who governs are the Green Party, who got 1/6th of the popular vote and who are demanding proportional representation. Voting 3rd party here can make a difference.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2017, @09:48AM