Congressional Report Cites States Most Vulnerable to Election Hacking

A new report details issues with 18 states along with suggestions on what can be done.

With the cyberattacked 2016 elections as prelude and the 2018 mid-term elections looming, the House of Representatives Committee on Administration – Democrats has issued a report highlighting the 18 states considered most vulnerable to election-hacking.

Congress has appropriate $380 million to help states harden their systems and prepare their defenses, and the report measures the 18 at least partially on their requests to use part of that money.

The report sorts the vulnerable 18 into three tiers:

• TIER 1: “States that have the most serious election security vulnerabilities. These states rely exclusively on electronic voting machines that do not have a paper record. It is nearly impossible to determine if paperless voting machines have been hacked and if vote tallies have been altered.”
• TIER 2: “States that have significant election security vulnerabilities but may not be planning on using federal assistance to address their biggest vulnerabilities.”
• TIER 3: “States that have significant election security vulnerabilities and are using their federal funds to address those issues, though they need additional assistance to fully upgrade their election infrastructure.”

Tier 1 states with the most serious vulnerabilities are Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, and South Carolina. The recommendations for each include changing the voting mechanism to include a paper trail, with individual additional suggestions based on their current state of IT readiness.

Tier 2 states are Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. In Tier 3 are Arkansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

For more, read here.

 

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