Bruce Schneier Op-Ed on the potential of Russians hacking voting machines still gives me the willies

[swag]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/27/by-november-russian-hackers-could-target-voting-machines/?utm_term=.07820f68ff09

By Bruce Schneier July 27

Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and a lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His latest book is Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World.

Excerpt:
. . .

Even more important, we need to secure our election systems before autumn. If Putin’s government has already used a cyberattack to attempt to help Trump win, there’s no reason to believe he won’t do it again — especially now that Trump is inviting the “help.”

Over the years, more and more states have moved to electronic voting machines and have flirted with Internet voting. These systems are insecure and vulnerable to attack.

But while computer security experts like me have sounded the alarm for many years, states have largely ignored the threat, and the machine manufacturers have thrown up enough obfuscating babble that election officials are largely mollified.

We no longer have time for that. We must ignore the machine manufacturers’ spurious claims of security, create tiger teams to test the machines’ and systems’ resistance to attack, drastically increase their cyber-defenses and take them offline if we can’t guarantee their security online.

Longer term, we need to return to election systems that are secure from manipulation. This means voting machines with voter-verified paper audit trails, and no Internet voting. I know it’s slower and less convenient to stick to the old-fashioned way, but the security risks are simply too great.

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[Coyotl]

1. Just substitue Repubilcans for Russians and it all makes sense.

Might as well look to who has real motive! Why be completely naive about this?

[tech3149]

2. Funny how that happens

How long have election integrity people been screaming about election manipulation? And now? All of a sudden it's the "Russians" so now we have to take it seriously? I get seriously tired of the Russia bashing like it actually means something. How many elections and governments have we interfered with since forever? now we might be the subject of similar treatment and we are outraged, outraged, I tell you!

[Coyotl]

3. Yeah, we invent computer voting so we can fix other people's elections, and now we worry!

It is ironic, but mostly it is ridiculous to think the Russians are the culprits when the Republicans are the beneficiaries. As if Russia wants Trump's finger on the nuclear trigger. That's too much to believe, just plain stupid even.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thank you. n/t

[BadgerKid]

5. The state of voting here is shameful.

No verified voting and supposedly massive voter fraud. There's simplicity in paper ballots and purple fingers (see voting in Iraq).

[Bill USA]

6. this bothers me too. Especially since Igor (my name for Putin) wants the King of Clowns to win (for

obvious reasons).