WATCH: Firm Demonstrates Ease of Hacking a Voting Machine
by CHARLIE NASH
7 Nov 2016
Digital security firm Cylance have released a video demonstrating how easy it is to hack an electronic voting machine in just a few steps.
Demonstrating on a Sequoia AVC Edge Voting Machine, the same machine that was used in the 2008 presidential election and is still used in a number of voting precincts, Cylance show how in just a few easy steps, numbers, candidate names, and other variables could be easily modified and made to look genuine.
“With access to the physical machine, we were able to produce a forged update with false voting data,” claimed Cylance in the video, before changing the polling precinct location, candidate votes, and names on a computer. Cylance then inserted their modified PCMCIA card into the machine and restarted it, showing the altered and false data on relaunch.
The false data was also transferred over to a printed paper version at the click of a button, seemingly confirming the results that had been modified.
“I have had three jobs that, together, taught me at least one thing: If it’s a computer, it can be hacked,” said former White House senior cybersecurity adviser Richard Clarke in August.
“For Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, I served as the White House senior cybersecurity policy adviser. For President Barack Obama, I served on his five-person post–Edward Snowden investigative group on the National Security Agency, intelligence and technology. And for over a decade I have advised American corporations on cybersecurity,” he continued. “Those experiences confirm my belief that if sophisticated hackers want to get into any computer or electronic device, even one that is not connected to the internet, they can do so.”
