The issue of election malpractices and hacking has come up many times in the past. Technological advancements have led to many people relying on what is published online to determine which candidate to vote for.
2020 being a presidential election year for the United States, experts decided to do an analysis. According to the latest analysis, many election websites in their thousands lack basic security features to avert different attacks. McAfee, a worldwide cyber-security firm, conducted this survey for the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit.
These are the sites where voters turn to whenever they need critical information. The independent analysis of at least 1,000 local government-run websites unearthed startling discoveries. An overwhelming number of the county election sites in the battleground states do not have adequate security measures and validation.
Picks for you
Some of these sites have no security features at all. This widespread lack of protection on the sites that voters usually rely on for election-related information comes in spite of years of warnings.
The Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with other federal agencies, has urged city, county, and state websites to enhance cybersecurity. Some of the strategies that the site owners can use to beef up their security include encryption and migration to any of the available federally validated web domains.
Congress has already allocated an extra $425 million to states to enhance election security this year. No site owner should fail to install security features to their site since it is affordable. The cost involved to fix one of the fundamental gaps that were identified in the NIU analysis is $400 per county annually.
