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Want to Know if the Election was Hacked? Look at the Ballots
Want to Know if the Election was Hacked? Look at the Ballotsby J. Alex Halderman, Professor of Computer Science, University of Michigan
How might a foreign government hack Americas voting machines to change the outcome of a presidential election? Heres one possible scenario. First, the attackers would probe election offices well in advance in order to find ways to break into their computers. Closer to the election, when it was clear from polling data which states would have close electoral margins, the attackers might spread malware into voting machines in some of these states, rigging the machines to shift a few percent of the vote to favor their desired candidate. This malware would likely be designed to remain inactive during pre-election tests, do its dirty business during the election, then erase itself when the polls close. A skilled attackers work might leave no visible signs though the country might be surprised when results in several close states were off from pre-election polls.
Could anyone be brazen enough to try such an attack? A few years ago, I might have said that sounds like science fiction, but 2016 has seen unprecedented cyberattacks aimed at interfering with the election. This summer, attackers broke into the email system of the Democratic National Committee and, separately, into the email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, and leaked private messages. Attackers infiltrated the voter registration systems of two states, Illinois and Arizona, and stole voter data. And theres evidence that hackers attempted to breach election offices in several other states.
In all these cases, Federal agencies publicly asserted that senior officials in the Russian government commissioned these attacks. Russia has sophisticated cyber-offensive capabilities, and has shown a willingness to use them to hack elections. In 2014, during the presidential election in Ukraine, attackers linked to Russia sabotaged the countrys vote-counting infrastructure and, according to published reports, Ukrainian officials succeeded only at the last minute in defusing vote-stealing malware that was primed to cause the wrong winner to be announced. Russia is not the only country with the ability to pull off such an attack on American systems most of the worlds military powers now have sophisticated cyberwarfare capabilities.
Were this years deviations from pre-election polls the results of a cyberattack? Probably not. I believe the most likely explanation is that the polls were systematically wrong, rather than that the election was hacked. But I dont believe that either one of these seemingly unlikely explanations is overwhelmingly more likely than the other. The only way to know whether a cyberattack changed the result is to closely examine the available physical evidence paper ballots and voting equipment in critical states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, nobody is ever going to examine that evidence unless candidates in those states act now, in the next several days, to petition for recounts.
https://medium.com/@jhalderm/want-to-know-if-the-election-was-hacked-look-at-the-ballots-c61a6113b0ba#.i3bncv5j9
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Want to Know if the Election was Hacked? Look at the Ballots (Original Post)
Sunlei
Nov 2016
OP
It seems Americans are afraid to admit the obvious fact that their voting machines are being hacked.
UCmeNdc
Nov 2016
#2
It's not Americans who are afraid. It's corporate Democrats who are afraid of the GOP
yurbud
Nov 2016
#5
yurbud
(39,405 posts)1. why can't Dems admit REPUBLICANS rig voting machines?
Jesus, it seems like they'd rather start a World War than admit they've let the GOP steal their lunch over and over.
UCmeNdc
(9,600 posts)2. It seems Americans are afraid to admit the obvious fact that their voting machines are being hacked.
They hate to point fingers.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)5. It's not Americans who are afraid. It's corporate Democrats who are afraid of the GOP
zonkers
(5,865 posts)6. They will kill our dogs, leave dead horses in our bed and or release the dirt they have on them.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)7. Maybe Democrats need to adopt the Trump response to dirt.
and not have any dogs or horses.
byronius
(7,400 posts)3. If this had happened to Republicans there would be violence in the streets.
NoMoreRepugs
(9,453 posts)4. I agree with u 100%