The Overlooked Threat to Election Security
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Over the past two years, revelations that our election systems have been targeted for cyberattack have roiled the United States. Leaders of our national security apparatus have repeatedly warned that our election infrastructure continues to be targeted for online attacks by foreign intelligence. As state election officials grapple with the looming threat of cyberattack on election technology, there is a significant vulnerability that has been roundly ignored: transmission of ballots over the internet, including by email, fax and web portal.
This report reviews the research that has been conducted by the federal government concluding that secure online voting is not yet feasible. We examine the insoluble security problems that are inherent to casting ballots online, including server penetration attacks, client-device malware, attacks to emailed and faxed ballots in transit, denial-of-service attacks, disruption attacks and the challenge to reliably authenticate voters.