After the U.S. federal authorities informed 21 states that they were targeted by the Russian hackers during the last year elections, Senator Ron Wyden wants to know how the top 6 voting machine manufacturers protect themselves from cyberattacks. According to Wyden, public faith in American election infrastructure is more important than ever before.
“Ensuring that Americans can trust that election systems and infrastructure are secure is necessary to protecting confidence in our electoral process and democratic government,” writes Wyden in his letter sent to the CEOs of top election technology firms.
But, manufacturers say they have either not read the letter or are not aware of any cyberattacks. Election System & Software have not yet received Wyden’s letter and a spokesman for Hart InterCivic, which has provided vote tabulation devices, software and other voting services in 18 states, said he wasn’t aware of any cyber attacks on the company or its products. John Schmitt, founder of Five Cedars Group in Oregon, a vote-by-mail state, also haven’t received Wyden’s letter.
The company doesn’t handle voter registration information and plays no role in tallying ballots, said Schmitt. Other companies like Dominion Voting Systems, Unisyn Voting Solutions and MicroVote did not comment the matter.
Wyden asked the companies to detail their internal security protocols. He wants to know if they test their systems against penetration attempts by outside experts and follow federal best practices.
Federal officials designated elections systems critical infrastructure on the order of power plants or electrical grids. Still, state elections officials are confused over what that designation entails, and some states chafe at the prospect of losing local control of their elections systems.
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