- Hackers at a cybersecurity conference breached 30 voting machines in less than two hours.
- The episode demonstrates the US' continued vulnerability to electoral tampering by state actors.
- Some believe that going back to paper ballots is the only way to guard against future cyberattacks from Russia or other foreign powers.
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'The bad guys can get in': Hackers at a cybersecurity conference breached dozens of voting machines within minutes
"If Russia wants you badly enough, they will out-spend you to find a way," one cybersecurity expert said.
Hackers at DEF CON.
Professional hackers were invited to break into dozens of voting machines and election software at this year's annual successfully hacked every single one of the 30 machines acquired by the conference.
The challenge was held at DEF CON's "Voting Village," where hackers took turns breaching ten sample voting machines and voter registration systems, Politico reported.
Carten Schurman,
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Bloombergreportedin June that election systems in as many as 39 states could have been attacked by Russian state actors, though voting tallies are not believed to have been altered or manipulated in any way.
"In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data," Bloomberg said. "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."
The report was bolstered by a leaked NSA document published by The Intercept in June detailing how hackers connected to Russian military intelligence had attempted to breach US voting systems days before the election.
At DEFCON, an intern named Anne-Marie Hwang was able to gain administrative access to a voting machine by simply using a generic key like the ones poll workers are given, plugging in a keyboard to the machine, and hitting control-alt-delete, Politico reported.
Participants were also able to uncover voter data from 2002 in a machine still being used in certain parts of seven states and across the state of Nevada.
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Hackers obtained the data despite the fact that the machine had been wiped when it was auctioned off by the government.
The ease with which hackers were able to break into voting machines should serve as an important warning signal to US authorities.
Virginia and New Jersey will hold gubernatorial elections later this year, and all 435 seats in the House and 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested in the 2018 midterm elections.
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