archie bunker wrote:
Gee Whiz! I sure do get a little tired of asking honest, and legitimate questions in a nice, respectful way on this forum, and being completely ignored.
Maybe you missed it in your stupor. I'll try again.
How can people hack into voting machines that are not hooked up to the Internet via the internet?
I know this is an uncomfortable question for you considering your earlier assertion, but, I'd like an answer if it wouldn't be too much trouble.
————————
Hey Arch!
Since no one has answered your question, allow me to provide you with a couple of links that can answer your question.
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/voting-machines-can-be-hacked-in-two-minutes-expert-warnsNote: I’m sure you know, that if it’s from Fox Entertainment News, it has to be true.
LOL 🙄🤪
Actually, it’s not so much the machine, itself, that’s the weak link. In this report it states, “Hackers rely on automated processes -- apps, development tools and online databases on services like GitHub or Pastebin -- that make it easy to hack the machines used for tallying votes.“
The above quote is the most important part within the report, especially the part after the word, “apps.” (I couldn’t get my iPad to allow me to bold face or underline that portion of the text in order to highlight it for emphasis.)
From “Scientific American” magazine is the following:
“When it comes to voting machines themselves, though, how might malicious code get introduced?
“One possibility is that attackers could infiltrate what are called election-management systems. These are small networks of computers operated by the state or the county government or sometimes an outside vendor where the ballot design is prepared.
“There’s a programming process by which the design of the ballot—the races and candidates, and the rules for counting the votes—gets produced, and then gets copied to every individual voting machine. Election officials usually copy it on memory cards or USB sticks for each, individual, election machine. That process provides a route by which malicious code could spread from the centralized programming system to the many voting machines in the field. Then, the attack code runs on the individual voting machines, and it’s seen as just another piece of software by the voting machine.”
The malicious code has access to all of the same data that the voting machine does, including all of the electronic records of people’s votes. Depending on how the malicious code is written, it can track and/or change the votes of everyone voting on the “infected” voting machine.
The article goes on to say, “So how do you infiltrate the company or state agency that programs the ballot design? You can infiltrate their computers, which are connected to the internet. Then you can spread malicious code to voting machines over a very large area. It creates a tremendously concentrated target for attack.”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-vulnerabilities-of-our-voting-machines/From these 2 articles we can see that in a majority of the states, after the votes are cast and tallied at the precincts, those totals are usually sent electronically to the county and/or state’s election commissions. It’s there that the “weak link” is located since that’s where the malicious code can be downloaded onto the voting machines, even before the voting begins AND when the voting machines tallies are sent back to the counties and states for a comprehensive tally of the elections. So, there 2 opportunities for hackers to infect our voting machines, both before and after the votes are cast. Remember, too, those precinct voting machines aren’t necessarily connected to the Internet. But, the county and state machines ARE linked to the Internet and thusly, can easily be hacked.
For anyone to deny that our voting hasn’t been hacked, I refer them to an instance in Texas where someone who voted for Beto SAW his vote changed on the screen of the voting machine to Ted Cruz. In 2016 I saw my vote for Hillary changed to Trump on the screen of the machine I used. (Just like the guy in Texas.) When I brought it to the attention of the “polling observer” he said I “...must’ve been seeing things...,” and moved away, ending the conversation.
Hope this answers your question.
PS: Sorry I missed your call, Arch. We we’re outside and I didn’t have my phone.
AB 😬