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You’ve seen it played out in the
TV show, Scandal, but could
it happen in real life? Could
our presidential election be
influenced -- or even stolen by
criminals with computer skills?
Hacking, stolen emails, and
premature
speculation
by
the presidential candidates
surrounding rigged elections
makes one wonder, has real life
taken a page out of the plotlines
of television and movies?
As far-fetched as it may seem,
even Homeland Security is
concerned about the possibility
of high level computerized
attempts to rig the election.
This month in a press
conference, Homeland Security
Secretary Johnson spoke about
the gravity of the situation. He
said, “There’s a vital national
interest in our election process.”
So vital, as a matter of fact, that
Homeland Security is taking
action BEFORE criminals strike.
The agency is currently working
closely with officials on both the
county and state levels to try to
ensure the safety and integrity
of the election process.
But still, the question lingers…
“Could a hacker sway election
results?”
About 2,400 miles west of
Washington, DC a group of
ethical hackers gathered in
what is called the Black Hat
conference. Their message on
the topic was clear. -- “If a person
has made it, another person will
figure out how to hack it.”
The question then becomes,
“What will this hack look like
when it happens?”
It will likely look a lot like the
Russian cyber-invasion of the
Democratic National Committee
in June that led to the resignation
of the DNC’s chair Debbie
Wasserman-Schultz.
Experts agree that the voting
machines themselves won’t be
the likely point of entry. Rather,
the computers that are used
to send the results up from
the precincts are considered to
be the most vulnerable link in
the vote tabulation chain. The
biggest harm in an election hack
would not be the tampering
itself but the loss of public trust
in the electoral system resulting
from the hack.
The systems of your business
may not be as important to
national security and public
confidence as the voting
machines or the computers
in the vote tabulation chain,
The question that keeps Homeland Security personnel awake at night.
Could the
Election
Be Hacked?
By Jeanne DeWitt
SOAR TO SUCCESS
/
O
ctober
2016
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Core Business Strategy