US official: Difficult to alter US elections through hacking

[webfact]

US official: Difficult to alter US elections through hacking

By ERIC TUCKER

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's homeland security adviser said Wednesday that it would be very hard for someone to hack into America's voting systems in a way that could alter an election outcome.

 

Lisa Monaco, speaking at an event commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the Justice Department's national security division, said election systems by and large are not hooked up to the Internet and are diffusely operated by state and local governments.

 

"That makes it extremely disparate, extremely diffuse and, as a consequence, extremely difficult to have an effect across the board that would result in a change in results," Monaco said during a question-and-answer session.

 

The bigger worry, she said, involves efforts to sow "concern or confusion" about the resilience of the system.

 

To help counter that, the federal government is pushing out to states a set of tools, such as the ability to scan for vulnerabilities and quickly patch them, and best practices that they should apply — including encrypting their voter registration data, she said.

 

The comments come amid ongoing concern about the ability by hackers from Russia or other nations to breach voting systems. The FBI last month warned state elections officials to boost their election security in light of evidence that hackers targeted related data systems in at least two states, Illinois and Arizona.

 

"The efforts of malicious actors to intrude upon voter registration databases and other elements of our critical infrastructure, as well as our voting infrastructure, are of concern," she said.

 

A Homeland Security Department official who is very involved in efforts to secure local elections but wasn't authorized to speak publicly said the department was not looking at designating election systems critical infrastructure now because of how little time there is until the elections. The official said the focus has been on providing information to states on technical assistance the department can provide to secure their systems as well as existing vulnerability reports it sends out.

 

A Presidential Policy Directive released in 2013 details 16 sectors that are considered critical infrastructure, including energy, financial services, healthcare, transportation, food and agriculture, and communications. The designation recommends the Homeland Security Department's secretary identify and prioritize critical infrastructure, considering physical as well as cyber threats.

 

The official said the department was looking at designating election systems as critical infrastructure in the future.

 

Monaco's remarks echoed those of FBI Director James Comey, who told an audience last week that "the vote counting in this country tends to be kind of clunky, which is a blessing because it makes it harder for hackers to infiltrate."

 

Besides hacks of election systems, the federal government is continuing to investigate a hack of the Democratic National Committee and the subsequent disclosure of internal DNC emails on WikiLeaks. The U.S. hasn't formally blamed Russia for the hack of Democratic National Committee emails over the summer, but the party has, and the White House has pointed publicly to outside investigators who have determined Russia is to blame.

 

Those investigators have been less clear about whether Russia was also responsible for disseminating those emails through the website WikiLeaks. Determining Russia's involvement in the public disclosure of the emails is seen as a prerequisite to any sanctions the U.S. might levy on Russia in response to the hack.

 

Monaco on Wednesday replied "stay tuned" when asked whether the U.S. might respond. The Obama administration in the last two and a half years has publicly accused Chinese hackers in breaches of American corporations, North Korea in a punishing hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Iranian hackers in digital breaches of banks and a small dam outside New York City.

 

Comey, appearing later at the same event, said not all tools that the government can respond with are visible to the public.

 

"Just because you can't see something doesn't mean your government's not doing something," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Tami Abdollah and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-09-15

[CosmicSurfer]

BULLSHIT.... The US electoral system is Not controlled or Regulated at the National level... and according to x-President Jimmy Carter would FAIL any UN sanctioned Electoral monitoring!!
Each state runs their own disparate system.. and Partisan (Biased) individuals run the Systems... None are non-Partisan. It is common for the responsible parties to be High-Ranking members of Either the Republican or Democratic party and actively serving on their parties Election Committees and campaigning for their chosen candidates!!
These people have DIRECT and unfettered access to the Voting machines, the Counting machines and all proprietary software... THESE  people who are relied upon to run clean and fair Elections are the Very ones that make the system Vulnerable!!!  And it is usually the states that deliberately have NO PAPER TRAIL, where the problems occur, it is almost impossible for any action to be taken after the fact because no evidence is available to contradict the counts... and the Software is NEVER made available for scrutiny by experts in Election Fraud. 
The recent Democratic Primary is a prime example, where ALL post Primary examinations by experts have declared that Bernie Sanders was the true winner... and Clinton Illegitimate!!

[JHolmesJr]

^^^If thats true then crooked hillary has already won. 

[Credo]

5 hours ago, CosmicSurfer said:

BULLSHIT.... The US electoral system is Not controlled or Regulated at the National level... and according to x-President Jimmy Carter would FAIL any UN sanctioned Electoral monitoring!!
Each state runs their own disparate system.. and Partisan (Biased) individuals run the Systems... None are non-Partisan. It is common for the responsible parties to be High-Ranking members of Either the Republican or Democratic party and actively serving on their parties Election Committees and campaigning for their chosen candidates!!
These people have DIRECT and unfettered access to the Voting machines, the Counting machines and all proprietary software... THESE  people who are relied upon to run clean and fair Elections are the Very ones that make the system Vulnerable!!!  And it is usually the states that deliberately have NO PAPER TRAIL, where the problems occur, it is almost impossible for any action to be taken after the fact because no evidence is available to contradict the counts... and the Software is NEVER made available for scrutiny by experts in Election Fraud. 
The recent Democratic Primary is a prime example, where ALL post Primary examinations by experts have declared that Bernie Sanders was the true winner... and Clinton Illegitimate!!

Your information is full of wholes.   I have been a poll watcher, many years ago.   I was assigned by my employer to do so.   Each of the major parties had poll watchers who registered everyone who came in.   Overseeing them were officials to make sure they were not up to any mischief.   When I did it, we got called on the carpet because the poll watchers were sitting too close to the officials who check to see that the voter is properly registered.   We were forced to move further away.

 

Even in a small rural area where everyone knew everyone, it was conducted in a formal and legal manner.   

[otherstuff1957]

The issue is not about casting votes.  It is almost impossible for a person to vote more than once or outside of the place they are registered.  The real potential problem is the possibility of hacking.  There are 50 separate voting systems and 50 separate computer systems tallying votes.  Based on current polls, this election will be very close.  If the vote count is tampered with in just one state - probably Ohio or Florida - the election outcome could be changed.  

 

While unlikely, it is possible that V. Putin could choose the next POTUS. 

[Usernames]

On 9/15/2016 at 8:15 AM, webfact said:

President Barack Obama's homeland security adviser said Wednesday that it would be very hard for someone to hack into America's voting systems in a way that could alter an election outcome.

 

But he and the Democrats will give it a try anyway.

[CosmicSurfer]

On 2016-09-15 at 7:02 PM, Credo said:

I have been a poll watcher, many years ago.

 

Exactly.... "Many Years ago"... Times have changed... and so has Election Fraud.... Many Years ago you had Punch cards and a Paper trail to follow... NO MORE !!! 
It is amazing how easy it is to hack modern Voting machines... Google it... PLENTY of Videos!

I suggest Googling these 2 Topics for an enlightened education >>>
> DNC Primary Election Fraud
> Hacking Voting machines
 

Enjoy,

CS
 

Edited October 7, 2016 by CosmicSurfer
Add Video

[CosmicSurfer]

 

[ClutchClark]

"Difficult" is not reassuring.

 

"Statistically Impossible" would be reassuring.

[ClutchClark]

On September 15, 2016 at 6:02 PM, Credo said:

Your information is full of wholes.   I have been a poll watcher, many years ago.   I was assigned by my employer to do so.   Each of the major parties had poll watchers who registered everyone who came in.   Overseeing them were officials to make sure they were not up to any mischief.   When I did it, we got called on the carpet because the poll watchers were sitting too close to the officials who check to see that the voter is properly registered.   We were forced to move further away.

 

Even in a small rural area where everyone knew everyone, it was conducted in a formal and legal manner.   

 

I am going to just hazard a wild guess that you were not assigned to Chicago polls.

[Rancid]

Stalin said " The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." Does anyone really seriously imagine that Stalin was the only person that this ever occurred to? There have been mumblings for years that those electronic voting systems can be manipulated, does anyone also imagine that a) there wouldn't be those that would pay for that, and that there aren't those that would accept payment for such.

 

Democracy is all about the population "believing" they have a choice, it has nothing to do with offering a choice. The political process was corrupted and bought by those who could afford it long ago. Democracy is a better alternative as long as it remains the system that still offers more freedom to the population, but it has nothing to do with choosing governments, that is decided by small groups of the very rich, elections are just shows for entertainment.