Election Engineering: How US Cybersecurity Experts Are Making Sure Your Vote Will Count

In 2016, we saw how foreign powers could affect US elections. Now the nation is scrambling to secure the system in the midst of a pandemic.

- MAX EDDY

In February, the 2020 RSA security conference quickly settled on a cohesive narrative: America had, more or less, figured out how to do secure elections. Fears of hacked voting machines were fading away, with new challenges such as protecting electronic voting rolls and mass disinformation campaigns from foreign powers taking up far more airtime.

The problem this year will not be voting machines, at least not according to Tod Beardsley, Rapid7’s Director of Research. “They’re no longer the villain; more of a reluctant ally,” said Beardsley. “If that were the attack we had to worry about, we’d be so far ahead of the game.”

Beardsley is more concerned about the possibility of ransomware locking up critical voter data and creating chaos on Election Day. Indeed, the coming election will almost certainly face a host of threats, from foreign-sponsored disinformation campaigns to the logistics of counting the inevitable surge of pandemic-driven mail-in ballots. How can Americans be sure their votes are secure and accurately counted? The nation’s top security experts have been working on that.

WHERE WE COULD BE VULNERABLE