Feds Oppose Exposure of Voting Machine Flaws
By: John Semmens
Cyber security expert J. Alex Halderman's sworn testimony that his 12 week investigation of Dominion Voting Systems' machines “identified multiple severe security flaws that would allow bad actors to install malicious software.” Plaintiffs in a case challenging Georgia's continued use of these machines want Halderman's report made public.
On February 2, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled that the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) should have a look at the report before any decision about making it public is rendered. The CISA opposes immediate release of the findings because “more time is needed to assess the risks and how to mitigate them.”
CISA Director Jen Easterly advised that “rather than jump to conclusions, I think we need to see another iteration of these machines being used on the upcoming 2022 House and Senate elections. This will give us a chance to catch any cheaters in the act. Just because the machines are vulnerable doesn't prove that these vulnerabilities are of sufficient magnitude to warrant the tedious work of trying to prevent them from being exploited to alter the voters' intended choices. Neither can it be proven that altering the actual ballots is a bad thing. It's quite possible that unmodified voting could result in a disastrous election outcome.”
Feds Oppose Exposure of Voting Machine Flaws
Cyber security expert J. Alex Halderman's sworn testimony that his 12 week investigation of Dominion Voting Systems' machines “identified multiple severe security flaws that would allow bad actors to install malicious software.” Plaintiffs in a case challenging Georgia's continued use of these machines want Halderman's report made public.
On February 2, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled that the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) should have a look at the report before any decision about making it public is rendered. The CISA opposes immediate release of the findings because “more time is needed to assess the risks and how to mitigate them.”
CISA Director Jen Easterly advised that “rather than jump to conclusions, I think we need to see another iteration of these machines being used on the upcoming 2022 House and Senate elections. This will give us a chance to catch any cheaters in the act. Just because the machines are vulnerable doesn't prove that these vulnerabilities are of sufficient magnitude to warrant the tedious work of trying to prevent them from being exploited to alter the voters' intended choices. Neither can it be proven that altering the actual ballots is a bad thing. It's quite possible that unmodified voting could result in a disastrous election outcome.”
