Funding fights lead to vulnerable votes
There likely isn’t a quick fix for complex U.S. election integrity challenges such as social-engineering interference on Facebook. Experts say there is a straightforward response, however, to vulnerable voting-machine software. The problem is that it involves...
read moreVoting Machine Manual Instructed Election Officials to Use Weak Passwords
States and counties have had two years since the 2016 presidential election to educate themselves about security best practices and to fix security vulnerabilities in their election systems and processes. But despite widespread concerns about election interference...
read moreUS election integrity depends on security-challenged firms
It was the kind of security lapse that gives election officials nightmares. In 2017, a private contractor left data on Chicago’s 1.8 million registered voters — including addresses, birth dates and partial Social Security numbers — publicly exposed for months on an...
read moreDEF CON 26 Voting Village Report
This is the 2018 Voting Village Report, detailing the significant findings and vulnerabilities discovered at DEF CON 2018. Compiled by election security experts and backed by Secretaries of State, this report represents a small portion of the numerous vulnerabilities...
read moreUN Accidentally Exposes Passwords and Sensitive Information
THE UNITED NATIONS accidentally published passwords, internal documents, and technical details about websites when it misconfigured popular project management service Trello, issue tracking app Jira, and office suite Google Docs. The mistakes made sensitive material...
read moreElection security a ‘priority,’ DHS official tells states at Missouri summit
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft on Monday kicked off the first day of hosting his counterparts from 11 states for a national summit on election security, an issue that one federal official called “a priority” before the midterms. The two-day event, in St....
read moreI’m teaching email security to Democratic campaigns. It’s as bad as 2016.
For the past eight months, I’ve been traveling the country in a sometimes quixotic attempt to train congressional campaigns about email security. On one recent trip, I asked a Democratic campaign manager how he was keeping track of his personal passwords. When he hung...
read moreWireless Infusion Pumps Could Increase Cybersecurity Vulnerability
Wirelessly connecting infusion pumps to point-of-care medication systems and EHRs improves healthcare delivery but also increases cybersecurity vulnerability, warned NIST and the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) in a new guide. If not properly...
read moreDEFCON 2018: Voting Hacks Prompt Push Back from Election Officials, Vendors
DEFCON 26, building on its work in hacking ballot machines last year, saw three days of probing into various aspects of the end-to-end voting infrastructure in place in the U.S., including a voter registration database and election reporting websites. Several...
read more670 ballots for 276 voters? Georgia election security in question
Habersham County’s Mud Creek precinct in northeastern Georgia had 276 registered voters ahead of the state’s primary elections in May. But 670 ballots were cast, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s office, indicating a 243 percent turnout. The discrepancy,...
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