ELECTION SECURITY:
America’s elections aren’t fail safe, but Americans can have far more confidence in integrity of election outcomes
This post originally appeared on Oct. 31, 2018 on the Symantec Election Security Blog.
Even as the Justice Department stays busy with those suspected of election meddling in the run-up to the midterms, there’s growing reason for optimism about the ability of the US electoral infrastructure to withstand attacks.
While it’s still technically possible for a foreign state to affect the vote – vulnerabilities remain – the plausible prospects have become more remote thanks to significant strides at the federal, state, and local government authorities the last couple of years in hardening the nation’s election infrastructure.
At the same time, federal and state efforts seem to be deterring the state-sponsored hackers so active during the last election cycle. Indeed, for the past several weeks, state after state has gone public to assure the public that its voting systems are safe.
Perhaps the biggest vote of confidence arrived in the form of a rare joint statement from the Director of National Intelligence, FBI, Justice Dept. and Homeland Security.
Patrick Houston: A Portfolio 