outside influence and DHS has confirmed that at least 21 states had their
voting machines and/or registration databases poked, prodded and possibly
hacked. Because voting is done at the state and local level, town and city
residents and their elected and appointed officials are responsible for doing
all they can to ensure clean and fair elections.
This should not be a partisan issue. It should be a patriotic one.
The first goal should be to recognize there is a problem. That should be a
no-brainer, but we are not getting a lot of national leadership here, meaning
that we, in Framingham and all other towns and cities, need to be proactive.
I don't know who is officially responsible for this in Framingham, but it
should become a focus for whoever wins the mayoral and council races and for
whichever department is responsible. Let's not let this fall through a crack of
inaction or finger-pointing when it's too late.
I suggest that all interested parties view the C-Span video for the Voting
Machine Security discussion held yesterday (10/10/2017) . Here is a brief
synopsis and links to the video and a PDF summary report:
The hacker conference, known as “DEF CON,” released a report that detailed the
vulnerabilities of voting machines and other election equipment used throughout
the U.S. A panel of data security and foreign policy analysts discussed the
findings along with the broader national security implications following
reports of Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Speakers included Jeff Moss, the founder of DEF CON and Douglas Lute, a former
U.S. ambassador to NATO. This event was co-hosted by DEF CON and the Atlantic
Council.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?435437-1/def-con-hacking-report-warns-voting-machines-vulnerability
Voting Machine Report:
https://defcon.org/images/defcon-25/DEF%20CON%2025%20voting%20village%20report.pdf
As the report and video show, there are many, many vulnerabilities in the
voting machines, including the paper scanners, many of which do not require the
machines to be networked or accessed remotely.
We should be reaching out to the relevant Comm of MA department and to DHS to
find out what steps we can take to ensure fair elections. I'm sorry, but some
may require some spending. That's the cost of freedom.
Thanks for listening.