Every single one of the vital machines that make U.S. elections possible is easily hackable.
But don’t worry; there isn’t enough time to fix them, so no big deal.
The nation’s best hackers found vulnerabilities in voting machines — but no time to fix them via @politico
— Bernie Hensel, CIM (@henselbernie) August 14, 2024
Really, it’s not a big deal.
Sure, people have strong motives. And they have the means. And they sure have the opportunities.
But nobody would ever do it, even to stop a man that the left keeps calling Hitler 2.0.
LAS VEGAS — Some of the best hackers in the world gathered in Las Vegas over the weekend to try to break into voting machines that will be used in this year’s election — all with an eye to helping officials identify and fix vulnerabilities.
The problem? Their findings will likely come too late to make any fixes before Nov. 5.
In one sense, it’s the normal course of events: Every August, hackers at the DEF CON conference find security gaps in voting equipment, and every year the long and complex process of fixing them means nothing is implemented until the next electoral cycle.
But Election Day security is under particular scrutiny in 2024. That’s both because of increasing worries that foreign adversaries will figure out how to breach machines, and because President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud in 2020 undermined confidence in the vote among his supporters.
As a result, many in the election security community are bemoaning the fact that no system has been developed to roll out fixes faster and worrying that the security gaps that get identified this year will provide fodder for those who may want to question the results.
“As far as time goes, it is hard to make any real, major, systemic changes, but especially 90 days out from the election,” said Catherine Terranova, one of the organizers of the DEF CON “Voting Village” hacking event. She argued that’s particularly troubling during “an election year like this.”
If you go back into the news over the years, this happens every election cycle, in which hackers–for FUN–dig into the software and hardware of voting machines and reveal stunning vulnerabilities, and every election cycle nothing can be done about it.
Ironically–or perhaps intentionally–all the vulnerabilities are found prior to the election, identified, distributed to interested parties, and then the vulnerabilities are left open.
Almost as if the roadmap to cheating was charted and then handed out.
Now you might say that nobody would be willing or even interested to cheat in an election, and no doubt I am a bit too cynical about such matters. Surely, in the great and noble country of America where nobody cheats, lies, or steals, would anybody make an effort to grab hold of $6 trillion in buying power and the potential to control the entire economy and strip people of their freedom?
Inconceivable, really. Totally implausible.
So all you conspiracy theorists out there worried that our election could be stolen, hacked, or manipulated, fear not! Sure, all the major population areas are overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats and they seem strangely unwilling to do basic security work, be transparent, make elections truly auditable, or ensure that voters are who they say they are.
But really, they are good people who would never cheat. Even if it were easy and they were handed a roadmap explaining how to do it.
