Electoral security went in a hopeful direction earlier this year. However, Black Hat Security Conference speakers made it clear on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic has brought new challenges to ensure that every vote counts.
Federal election officials have been planning changes to the Coronavirus pandemic Christopher Krebs, director of the agency for cybersecurity and infrastructure security, said in a presentation at the virtual conference. Given the agency's mandate to help election agencies meet cybersecurity challenges, CISA predicts voters will have to spend more time planning their voting. Cancer says voters have to be patient, especially when tabulating results takes longer than usual.
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Cancer urged security experts to offer help to local election officials. "Be part of the solution," he said.
Cryptographer and election security expert Matt Blaze also spoke at the conference, noting that state and local election officials need to overcome major logistical hurdles to broaden email voting options while creating a surplus of personal voting sites. With less than 100 days to go until the 2020 presidential election, Blaze said it is imperative that people with technical skills get involved and ask local election officials what help they need.
"This community is exactly the one they need help with," said Blaze.
When technicians step in as electoral assistants and IT support, they help finish a job that made good progress in early 2020. Before the pandemic started, state and local authorities were in the process of adopting solutions to help solve major election security problems that intensified in 2016. The long-standing concerns over the security of electronic voting machines have become increasingly urgent given the alleged efforts of the Russian secret services to influence the presidential election. In response, polling stations moved away from paperless ballots and coordinated with the federal authorities to protect voting systems from external hackers.
"There was reason to be optimistic," said Blaze. "And then the pandemic came."
Now the electoral authorities have to find a way to ensure this all voters who want to cast their votes can do this without taking the risk of exposure to the coronavirus and without finding the process so tedious that they give up. This probably means a great linchpin for postal ballot papers. During president Donald Trump tweeted There could be high fraud rates, and these concerns are not supported by investigations. The bigger problem, campaign experts say, is that an email voting system can be expanded quickly enough to accommodate all voters who want it. And while some states are supposed to be thinking about expanding Online votingsecurity experts say The process is not certain and shouldn't be on the table. In less than 100 days before the election, the problem of giving registered voters a secure way to cast ballots must be resolved quickly.
Election security experts agreed with Blaze's assessment. Those who have previously warned of the weaknesses in electronic voting machines are now critically addressing the problems caused by concerns that voters at polling stations will be exposed to the corona virus in long lines and the demand for postal ballot papers will overwhelm election officials .
"The biggest problem with this election is that it is risky for everyone to vote personally," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. "There is a pandemic."
A sharp increase in votes by mail
Scaling mail-in voting (also known as postal voting) takes a lot of work. While some states already allow someone to sign up for postal ballot papers, others demand an "apology" from voters or a reason why they cannot come to the polling station. In many cases, being over 65 or having a disability are valid "excuses". The states of Washington, Oregon and Utah have universal voting systems via email.
Observers have called for states to apologize to residents to get voters a postal ballot.
"It is incomprehensible not to allow anyone to use postal voting who wants to use it," said Dan Wallach, a computer science professor at Rice University who focused on election security. That being said, he added that increasing the number of postal votes will pose a huge logistical burden for election officers across the country. Proper funding and security measures are required to successfully conduct the elections to ensure that the election scanners work properly.
In addition, massive educational efforts must be made so that voters know how to correctly return the ballot papers. Ballots can be reserved for errors, e.g. For example, forgetting to sign the ballot paper, putting all of the ballot papers from a household in a single envelope, or having a signature that does not match that in the file.
Blaze urged Black Hat viewers to volunteer for polling stations and said time is critical.
"The optimistic hint is that we can do this," said Blaze, "but we have to get involved now."
Digital election threats remain
In addition to the challenges of voting in a pandemic, the United States remains at risk from digital threats, Krebs emphasized. His agency is The biggest concerns are ransomware attacks on systems available and visible on the internet, including voter registration databases and electronic voter lists. As a result, CISA launched a program to help government and local election officials ensure that they secure these systems.
Election offices must keep analog records of these databases, in which hackers cannot manipulate them. According to election experts, copies of the upcoming election must be made several times so that a ransomware attack does not cause catastrophic losses during the voting process.
Disinformation is also a major concern, and Cancer said.
When it comes to campaigns spread false or divisive narratives In state news agencies or on social media channels, he said: "Russia has never taken a foot off the gas."
Observers are concerned that efforts to confuse or misrepresent voters could take advantage of the benefits of counting all mail-in ballots and confirming election results. Marian Schneider, President of Verified Voting, says that election agencies must inform voters in advance and explain why voting delays can occur. A delay "doesn't mean there were fraud or gimmicks, just that they took more time," she said.
Cancer also urged voters to be patient and not believe everything you see on the Internet.
"Think before you share," he said. "There are many additional studies that you can do to validate these claims."
