How Easy Is It To Hack Voting Machines?

How easy would it be to hack voting machines?

Don't know. May be you should ask Ivanka. I understand she has some financial interests in some of them. Chinese made IIRC.

NerdGirl123 said:

Interesting video from 2019.

Video: Opinion | I Hacked an Election. So Can the Russians.

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Would you be so kind as to give a synopsis?

More than just interesting: according to this page, these machines -- still in use in several of the battleground states in last week's election -- can be easily reprogrammed to deliberately miscount votes, either directly or by remote access.

P.S. If you've already watched the video, you already know the story.

Here is the lead to the story:

Elections

Relying on electronic voting machines puts us at risk, security expert says
How do we make elections secure? Try paper. Professor J. Alex Halderman, a security expert at the University of Michigan, explains why.

Innovation Hub

August 17, 2020 · 12:00 PM EDT

By Teresa Lawlor

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Professor Halderman demonstrated the machine's vulnerability in a mock election:

In fact, Halderman had hacked the election before it even began; by installing malicious software on the voting machines, some votes for the University of Michigan were changed as they were cast. Doing so, he says, was “unfortunately, somewhat easier than it sounds.” And, according to Halderman, our reliance on electronic voting can make our actual, real-world elections just as vulnerable.

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There’s been a lot of attention on Russia’s efforts to use social media to influence the 2016 election, but their interference didn’t end there. Halderman says that Russia probed the electronic election infrastructure of all 50 states and successfully gained access to several voter registration systems. Although subsequent investigations found that they did not manipulate registrations or votes, they may have had the capacity to do so.

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A couple more quotes from the article:

“If Russia or other attackers can break into a state’s election management system, they can spread malicious software to voting machines throughout that jurisdiction, and potentially change all of the digital records. That’s the threat that really keeps me up at night.”

J. Alex Halderman, professor, University of Michigan

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“Even if Russia does nothing at all, they’ll still be able to point to instances where there were breakdowns, and make it appear that they were due to hacking."

J. Alex Halderman, professor, University of Michigan

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NerdGirl123 said:

Interesting video from 2019.

Video: Opinion | I Hacked an Election. So Can the Russians.

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And?? If the point is to disseminate edifying information of the ease to hack a voting machine, and nothing else, then this should be in the News and Current Events forum.

If your point is to allege, oh so subtlety, the hacking of voting machines in this election tipped the scales for Biden, or other races, then come out and explicitly say so.

Seems you are flirting with suggesting the integrity of this election is in doubt because it is so easy to hack a voting machine that a cave man can do it, and did it in 2020.

Funny how the right paid absolutely zero interest when these same stories were coming up before the 2016 election.

NerdGirl123 said:

It's interesting because I assumed that electronic voting would actually be safer and more reliable than paper ballot voting. But I'm rethinking that now.

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There is a big difference between hacking a voting machine and doing it without leaving fotprints.

NerdGirl123 said:

Calm thyself.

The point is that, as I said in the OP, it's an interesting story. Obviously, it's relevant to the current political climate surrounding the elections.

You could, perhaps, not put words in my mouth, hmm?

Discuss the topic or don't. Thanks

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Hold up. I’ll let you know when I’m not calm, and asking you for your point isn’t an indication of not being calm.

Second, I didn’t put words in your mouth. Seems to me your visceral, defensive reaction impeded your ability to have read the words “if” and “seems.” Why did I use those terms? Because you’re opening post was informational only, like telling us water is wet.

And what exactly are we to discuss? Your opening post is informational only. That’s my point. You didn’t say exactly how or why the information is relevant today, until now.

And is this information relevant to the current political climate? There’s no evidence those machines were infiltrated. There’s no evidence they were hacked. How exactly is the information relevant other than make the baseless suggestion they were hacked, propagate baseless distrust in the election system and exacerbate the already existing meritless disrtrust.

So, go ahead, in your own words make the relevant connection between your disclosure of this information and the current political climate surround this election.

Donald J. Trump 9h ·
Donald J. Trump

“REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE.
DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES
USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM
TRUMP TO BIDEN.” Chanel Rion, OANN"

NerdGirl123 said:

Do you have any information on how common it is for people who hack voting machines to leave such footprints and be caught?

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No and detailed information will not be forthcoming as that would give clues as to how to cover those tracks. But there is a safe example. When a file is written to a brand new disk drive it is contigious. And the next file will be the same after it. If the file is edited it will not be in the same place as the original file.

And of course the most obvious. If code is changed it will not be the original code. Since the manufacturer will have the source code a check is pretty easy. One could of course wipe the entire system but there are ways of rebuilding it. The innstant erase of TV and Movies simply is false.

Kentonio said:

Funny how the right paid absolutely zero interest when these same stories were coming up before the 2016 election.

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To be fair it should be acknowledged from both sides and there will always be people on both sides that are able to respect the other side and see things from an unbiased perspective. The key is keeping God above politics

But what we have is alot of people who have put their identity into a political party and that's why we see statements that stereotype everyone on the right or left

NerdGirl123 said:

Or maybe you could comment on the content of the OP?

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Uh, I did.

I believe "Don't know." was a valid response.

Then I suggested you ask someone who might actually know for more information. It's not like anything in my response was off topic.

Lord Give Me A Sign said:

To be fair it should be acknowledged from both sides and there will always be people on both sides that are able to respect the other side and see things from an unbiased perspective. The key is keeping God above politics

But what we have is alot of people who have put their identity into a political party and that's why we see statements that stereotype everyone on the right or left

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That’s all well and good, but when you’ve had to listen to 12 years of Republicans refusing to protect elections, trying to keep poor and minority people from voting, gerrymandering their way into offices they don’t deserve democratically to hold, and stripping the vote from literally millions of American citizens, it is more than a little rich to have to listen to them now trying to lecture us on election security.

Kentonio said:

Funny how the right paid absolutely zero interest when these same stories were coming up before the 2016 election.

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And I'm guessing the people bringing them up won't doubt the integrity of the elections which got the GOP 50 Senate seats.