You ’ve doubtlessly hear the rumors that Russia or , hem , someunknown state of matter actor , is meddle in our presidential election , and plotting a massive machine politician on our electronic vote machine to tip the scales in favour of Trump . detest to be the one to bust the conspiracy house of cards , but they could n’t do that even if they wanted to .
However , whatcouldpotentially move voter outfit – and by extension , the possible outcome of the election – is a monolithic cyberspace cyber plan of attack like the one that brought down tons of site worldwide on October 21st . What would happen if someone decided to pull off an even more disabling DDoS attack in the States on Election Day ?
Like the October attack, hackers could strategically take down websites and services that are important to voters
The far-flung attack a couple weeks ago didn’tbring downthe internet , per se , but ratherbrokeit in what is get laid as a mete out self-renunciation of service ( DDoS ) attack . It target a preeminent domain name service ( DNS ) company , which maintains a directory of the names of site and then translates those names into the IP address needed to access them . Without that translation , you ca n’t get to the site , which is why you could n’t get at Twitter , Spotify , Netflix , Reddit , and a whole slew of other sites for several hours that sidereal day .
On Election Day , these hypothetical hackers could take down more than one DNS company , thereby striking an even more catastrophic blow . Chris Ciabarra , the co - founder and CTO ofRevel Systemswith a background in software security and anti - hacking , take out what an Election Day DNS attack could mean . " It could certainly affect the election . They could possibly bring down drive websites , so they can target what information is and is n’t usable to the public . If there are land site urging individuals to vote , or aid them register / find polling place , they could be after targeted tone-beginning . [ The hack ] can also target sites that are shop at by one company or another , which can cant voter turnout . "
They could also target the media to create chaos during the vote tally
take on down crusade sites is one thing , but messing with the broadcasting of the voting tallying could also cause massive wait and disorder on election night . Sean Sullivan , surety adviser to the European cyber - surety firmF - Secure , tell that a target attack on the Associated Press would be peculiarly problematic . " AP ’s organization could be a decisive item of failure on election night . A [ cyber-terrorist ] could n’t actually convert the suffrage , but the results could in spades be undermined . A DDoS attack on the AP ’s election night system could result in a delayed tally . And in the current political environment , delay results will spread hunch of elector put-on . If the organization is vulnerable to hacking , illegitimate stimulus might be potential , confusing the reportage , with the same potential results . "
It’svery, veryunlikely that attackers could rig the election results…
It ’s true that much of the engineering science we rely on to expedite the voting process at the pollsis shockingly outdated . Still , the vast majority of voting machines are n’t networked together , and are n’t at once connected to the internet at all , which means the likelihood of a monumental , far-flung hack that could tilt the results is less than minimum . You could , theoretically , mess with them individually if you had physical access to them , but that would require a sophisticated and collaborative exertion involving many citizenry in many polling land site across several states and , well , I ’ll have you put on your tinfoil chapeau to ponder that , but it ai n’t gon na pass off .
… But they could cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election
Knocking specific site offline in hopes of giving reward to a special campaigner is bad , but it ’s what this does to the psyche of the voting public that has the most profound effect . As Amir Sharif , Centennial State - founder of the stealthy security startupAporeto , explains , it could lead to calls for an election do - over , and sports fan the flame of the outrageous rigging claims that have dominated the conversation lead up to Election Day . " A DDoS that would make intelligence and information source unavailable , and potentially rap sure voting precincts offline , could cast doubt over the legitimacy of the election . This psychological aspect is , by far , the more serious threat facing the US democratic scheme on November 8th . "
… Or just manipulate financial markets
Another potential motive for a cyber plan of attack on Election Day might not be political at all , harmonize to Sullivan , but financial . " If the system is vulnerable , perhaps an attacker would prefer insider entree for the sake of market arbitrage . Or to make mart pandemonium . It would n’t be the first time that a hacker caused markets to move . I wish these concerns were far - fetched . But given the direct nag and DDoS attacks seen during 2016 , I do n’t think they are . "
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