Response to "Feds have eye on cybersecurity issues as voters go to polls"
During todays election, local and state officials kept a close eye on the internet for any suspicious behavior. This is the first major election since 2016 and officials wanted to make sure nothing involving Russia would interfere.
In the past, Russia has reportedly hacked into several email accounts and probed computers of government officials. Although experts don't believe it will happen for this election, they are working diligently to ensure that no one will interfere with this election. In fact, experts believe that it is near impossible to influence an election from hacking attacks. Most of the voting machines are detached from the internet and have a paper trail to track all information of who voted for what.
However, over 20 states have reported having attempted hacks into their voting systems in 2016. They feel that, relating to past elections, protecting against possible threats, especially when a few votes could swing a small local election, should be overemphasized and prioritized.
Interestingly enough, the The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general published a report stating the process of giving the DHS more power with cyber security data monitoring is moving slowly. They also are reportedly not fully equipped to fight these threats and "does not provide the quality, contextual data needed to effectively defend against ever-evolving threats".
Personally, I believe that this is an issue that should be the number one priority of being fixed by the Department of Homeland Security. With all the controversy regarding the 2016 Presidential election, I would have hoped that this issue would have been dealt with for the election that occurred today. As a result of previous elections being tampered with, Virginia moved to cease use of all of its paperless elections equipment. This is the opposite direction the world will be heading and should be prevented in the future through the efforts of the State and DHS officials.
As time goes on, the world will be integrating technology into future elections more and more. The security of a persons vote on the internet has now become the new priority of elections. With that being said, along with close monitoring of these elections, I think State and DHS officials should be working towards a solution to monitoring and preventing hacking of these elections in an effective and non-invasive manner. By doing so, they will be preparing for the inevitable wave of technology that will takeover most functions of society and help make the election process quicker, easier, and safer for people to participate in.
Soon, I hope to see improvements of this issue because I know that this is the direction the world is going towards. We will always be utilizing technology for elections in the future and need a solution before the next major election occurs.
Image via cnn.com
