BLOOMBERG: Russian Breach of 39 States Threatens Future U.S. Elections

[kpete]

Hackers said to take measure of voting systems, databases
A ‘red phone’ warning to the Kremlin from Obama White House



Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported.

In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.

The scope and sophistication so concerned Obama administration officials that they took an unprecedented step -- complaining directly to Moscow over a modern-day “red phone.” In October, two of the people said, the White House contacted the Kremlin on the back channel to offer detailed documents of what it said was Russia’s role in election meddling and to warn that the attacks risked setting off a broader conflict.


MORE DETAILS HERE:
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-13/russian-breach-of-39-states-threatens-future-u-s-elections

[we can do it]

1. "Republicans balked" 😡

Traitorous assholes.

[DefenseLawyer]

2. Paper ballots. n/t

[TheFrenchRazor]

11. we need all paper ballots, all hand-counted, all the time. nt

[TheBlackAdder]

16. The electronic machines that are used in my county have a paper ribbon backup for auditing.

.

Needless to say, it's a county that leans towards the Democrats, so they make sure all votes count.

.

[DefenseLawyer]

21. Unless you could prove that there is no way to hack or otherwise fuck with the machine

I'm not sure how I can trust the receipt that was produced by the same machine. I'm still for paper ballots.

[TheBlackAdder]

22. Yep. There are multiple levels of fuckery that can be performed.

[YCHDT]

20. yeap

[Madam45for2923]

3. Ugh! Horrible!

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. The first Secretary of State to mandate paper ballots in their state...

will be a national hero!

No, I'm not holding my breath. Just sayin'

[Mr. Ected]

5. And yet many on DU want to change focus from Russia to the 2018 mid-terms

When the Russians may well be holding the strings to the 2018 mid-terms.

[unc70]

6. Paper ballots may not help much

I am strongly for paper ballots, but that is not the main weak spot being exploited. That is the voter registration data bases. Use the Merced-funded Cambridge Analytics data on every voter (typically over 3000 items) to micro target which voter registrations to alter. Make subtle changes to those likely Dem voters so that they will be prevented from voting or forced to vote provisional. For example, some infrequent voters, deleting the registration might be tried; for others, a change of address might put the voter in a distant precinct, maybe back at a previous address. Lots of different attack vectors, not enough of a pattern at any one location to attract too much attention.

[mercuryblues]

8. My 1st thought

was the same. How many voters were turned away at the polls because their info was hacked and changed. It no longer matched their ID.

[TheFrenchRazor]

12. it is certainly not a case of either/or; why wouldn't they do both? of course they would. nt

[Tatiana]

7. Take all machines offline. Hand out paper ballots.

Problem solved.

Europe knows how to do it.

[Jim Lane]

9. Paper ballots won't solve the problem of hacked registrations.

See unc70's explanation in #6. A polling place using all paper ballots is still reliant on the list of registered voters sent out from the Board of Elections. If voter Jones is improperly deleted from the database before the list is printed and distributed, then the poll workers won't give Jones a paper ballot when he or she shows up to vote.

[TheFrenchRazor]

13. why do people continue to suggest that this must be an either/or question? we need to address both

the machines AND the vote suppression. those are not mutually exclusive things.

[Jim Lane]

15. I obviously wasn't suggesting that.

In a thread about hacked registrations, I was responding to a post that advocated paper ballots and said "Problem solved." I was pointing out that it would not solve the problem -- not that particular problem, anyway.

[Tatiana]

19. Yes, but we shouldn't have the registration databases online either.

This information should be stored securely and offline. Printed copies get generated and hand-carried to each polling place until we can figure out a way to make the system more secure.

[Jim Lane]

23. I'm undecided about that.

There are advantages to having the registration in a properly secured computer database. Ideally we'd have a read-only file, so that people could double-check their own registrations and so that campaigns could mail to registered voters, but no one could alter data. Online data entry seems to me to be both unnecessary and a security risk.

[dalton99a]

10. Yep. There is a reason the French don't allow electronic voting

Hint: Russia

[Achilleaze]

14. freaking republicans are going to let this happen to America

disgusting. republicans refusing to repond to defend America and American democracy is tantamount to treason.

[Initech]

17. We need to get this fixed before 2018.

Or we need to postpone the election.

[librechik]

18. kick this times infinity

...etc...

[Duppers]

24. K & R