By November, Russian hackers could target voting machines

By November, Russian hackers could target voting machines(washingtonpost.com)

39 points by cjdulberger 9 years ago | 24 comments

zghst 9 years ago |

Part of me doesn't like the whole red scare deal, but also, electronic voting machines should be banned outright. You think that after the OPM scandal that those things have the highest security??

alva 9 years ago | |

This Red Scare is getting ridiculous now.

One of the best things to come out of this election is how much political strategy has been exposed to the general public, inc. media complicity. I have so little faith in the political parties and media.

eternalban 9 years ago | | |

They are practically proactively announcing that they intend to invalidate the election results. Coupled with previously announced NATO's position regarding cyber warfare, we are looking at potential nuclear war.

Given that Russians blinked in the missile crisis and Yugoslavia, the establishment appears to think Russians will blink yet again.

But China will not. They crossed the Yalu river in the Korean war and they will not wait until their turn comes. They are not stupid.

The power elite are entirely out of control, drunk with power.

zghst 9 years ago | | |

As do I. My stomach has been churning in disgust seeing the collusion big money media and politicians. This latest attempt to drum up the Russian boogeyman is incredibly laughable, especially since they laughed it off four years ago. Yes Russia is corrupt, shitty regime, but they can't be culpable for every U.S. politician's failures and dirty deeds (where the inverse happens in the Russia), we've become so much like our so called "enemies", obeying and apologizing to top party members, publishing stories that only favor our dear leaders, etc.

xlm1717 9 years ago | | |

It is getting ridiculous. They're blaming the Russian boogeyeman for everything now. I think it was telling when Leon Panetta got told "no more war" when he spoke at the DNC. The people aren't interested in fighting Russia, we have nothing to gain over there.

nxc18 9 years ago |

The whole concept of electronic voting machines seems ridiculous to me. Not only are they open to attacks at every level, there really isn't a significant benefit to implementing them, beyond possibly saving some trees.

The peace of mind in trusting election results seems well worth the hassle of paper.

The other big component that I think is missing from the debate over electronic voting is the cost to communities. I loved voting (on paper) in the 2012 election, then staying up a few hours to tally the ballots with the community. Voters came together to count the ballots together and deliver a final count, which has the dual benefit of getting as many eyes on the process as possible (less chance of fraud) and putting 'by the people' back into the election process.

I've seen complaints that that isn't scalable, but I don't buy it. Any community can be broken up into sub-groups that can cast their ballots locally and work together to tally them, even if a group just covers a city block.

fryguy 9 years ago | |

One could argue that a properly implemented method of voting that involves computers in some capacity would decrease the chance of fraud, and allow voters to verify that their vote was counted. It could also allow more votes to be counted because it could immediately tell them their vote was invalid (how many hanging chads in Florida 2000?).

The problem is that we have companies like Diebold make this stuff. Companies that want to make a buck and cover their asses rather than make something secure and good for the people.

boneheadmed 9 years ago |

" Even so, we have to accept that someone is attacking our nation’s computer systems in an apparent attempt to influence a presidential election. "

This is so comical. If the DNC was actually acting in an ethical, responsible and legal way, the email release would not influence the election one wit. Instead it makes it even more clear that their apparatus had already chosen the winner - and it wasn't Sanders.

On the other: Why even have computerized ballots? Back to paper. Not perfect, but hacking problem solved.

memracom 9 years ago |

If voting machines are that insecure, then you should be worried about Chinese hackers, and Arab hackers and even American Republican hackers. Let's be frank, voting machines that are insecure can be exploited by ANYBODY who cares to influence an election and those with the most to gain/lose are members/supporters of the parties whose candidates are standing for election. In other words USA hackers should be your main worry. If you can secure the voting systems against them, then you have a chance at a fair election. Otherwise all bets are off and all the foreign hackers will be battling over who controls the vote.

excalibur 9 years ago |

We'll have 5 different organizations trying to rig the same election to further their own agendas. Which group is the smartest? Whose manipulations will carry the day? Find out next time on Who Wants to Screw a -19 Trillionaire!

elgabogringo 9 years ago |

That's preposterous, don't you know the cold war is over?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1409sXBleg

zghst 9 years ago | |

Smug, condescending, and dismissive are recurring traits in politicians who eventually eat their words

elgabogringo 9 years ago | | |

And remember when Hillary "pushed the reset button" with Russia - because (I guess) relations with them were so bad under Bush - but her team screwed up the translation? That was a classic:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7930047.stm

mikeash 9 years ago |

When does this sort of thing become an act of war? It seems like "cyber" stuff is taken much less seriously in that respect. Maybe it just gets more attention.

eternalban 9 years ago |

Not a problem. Let's use paper. (And dear Supreme Court, kindly stick to the constitution this time.)

scigeek42 9 years ago |

Obligatory XKCD reference: https://xkcd.com/463/

ommunist 9 years ago |

They do not need to, since siloviki silently support Trump anyway.