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If our “Election Systems” were declared to be “critical infrastructure” by the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) — you’d think they’d go to great lengths to protect it.
You’d think that, but given the following critiques from a Federal-Tech trade journal, you’d probably be wrong.
DHS: Russia tried to hack voting systems in 21 states
by Sean D. Carberry, fcw.com, The Business of Federal Technology — Jun 21, 2017
According to Department of Homeland Security officials, Russian hackers probed election-related systems in 21 different states in the run-up to the 2016 election. The officials said they could not disclose the states on that list, other than Arizona and Illinois, which have made their own public disclosures.
What! Don’t the citizens whose Votes are in Jeopardy, have a right to know — in order to demand their local boards actually Fix it ???
[...]
Jeanette Manfra, DHS's acting deputy under secretary for cybersecurity and communications in the National Protection and Programs Directorate, said the department has been in contact with the "owners" of the affected systems in the 21 states, but could not confirm that all state and local election officials in the targeted states have been made aware that their systems were probed.
Huh? What are they waiting for — Xmas 2018 ???
When is DHS going to put the “critical” concern — into protecting this “critical infrastructure” ???
[...]
Later in the hearing, however, state officials raised concerns about the information sharing and stated that so far no secretary of state has been authorized to receive classified threat data from DHS. They also echoed concerns raised by state officials when DHS first designated election systems as critical infrastructure, stating that there are no clear parameters for what DHS oversight would actually entail.
That’s nice. DHS can’t “trust” the Secretaries of State of the at-risk states, Because ???
Because of apparently bureaucratic “red tape” …
Funny how the son-in-law of the president can get his Security Clearance, after lying multiple times on his Security Application — AND the duly elected State officials who have oversight of our “critical” Election Systems, CANNOT.
If our Secretaries of State are NOT qualified to “receive classified threat data from DHS” in order to safeguard and harden our Voting systems — Who the Hell is ??? Fancy Bear?
It’s not like the Threats aren’t REAL and present dangers …
[...]
Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, said that despite assurances from DHS that voting machines and systems are difficult to hack and that any systemic attempt to change votes would be detected, manipulating machines and the outcome of an election is actually quite easy -- because he has routinely hacked voting machines as part of his research.
As FCW reported prior to the November 2016 election, Halderman confirmed that machines are highly vulnerable and that targeting a few machines in a swing county could change the results of a state or national election.
God help us all — if this is what passes for urgency and competence — in the Republican Administration, that thinks nothing of ‘attacks on war heroes’ … an Administration of hypocrites, who have stated both explicitly and implicitly, that they rather just
— Let it all Implode. And start over from scratch.
The way things are going they just might end up dismantling that “Deep State” (by intent, or by accident) — and then “replace it” with WHAT
— More chaos … more tragedy … more pain ???
(Afterall the Republican Administration is quite skilled at “replacing stuff” in their Reality TV line-up, aren’t they?)
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[Emphasis was added to the above referenced quotes, for the sake of optical-scanners in the crowd.]