US Voting System Manufacturer Hacked Prior To US Election

News has surfaced from a NSA report detailing a cyber-attack on a voting software supplier and phishing emails sent to government officials prior to the US election. The document from the NSA was provided anonymously and has been independently authenticated.

The document reportedly states: “Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting US local government organizations.”

The document does not directly identify the company in question, it contains references to a product made by VR Systems, a Florida-based vendor of electronic voting services and equipment whose products are used in eight states.

The Obama administration maintained that it took preventive measures to successfully guard against breaches of the systems in all 50 states.

It seems the Russian hackers now have more info on how to properly hack and manipulate US electronic voting systems. We will likely see congressional investigations into these incidents.

If the US is serious about getting honest and accurate election results, they need to adopt online open source voting technology. This will provide transparency into election results and allow voters to independently audit the ballot box. 

Follow My Vote uses technologies, such as blockchain technology and elliptic curve cryptography to create secure online voting software.

Read about Follow My Vote voting software on the BitShares blockchain.

Source: The Guardian

About the Author

Will Long is the Co-founder and Marketing Manager of Follow My Vote