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<\/div>CHANGING ITS STORY. <\/strong>Election hacking is at the top of everyone’s mind right now, thanks to the controversy surrounding the 2016 Presidential election. But a new report by Motherboard<\/em> suggests the issue is far from new.<\/p> On Tuesday, the outlet published an article<\/a> in which it claims it obtained a letter sent by Election Systems and Software (ES&S) (the company responsible for manufacturing the majority of voting machines used in the U.S.) to Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) in April. In the letter, ES&S reportedly admits that it sold election-management systems (EMSs) equipped with pcAnywhere, a software program typically used by system administrators as a way to access computers remotely, to “a small number of customers” between 2000 and 2006.<\/p> In a report published by the New York Times<\/em><\/a> in February, the company denied any knowledge of selling machines containing this software.<\/p> DIRECT ACCESS.<\/strong> EMSs play an important role in the election process. Officials use the systems to tabulate the results of individual voting machines and, in some cases, to program them as well.<\/p> The systems ES&S equipped with pcAnywhere also contained modems to connect the systems to the internet (the remote-access software would essentially be useless without the ability). Motherboard<\/em> discovered at least two instances of ES&S tech support staff accessing EMSs using the software – one in Pennsylvania in 2006 and another in Michigan in 2007.<\/p> BETTER OFFLINE.<\/strong> EMSs and voting machines are never<\/em> supposed to connect to the internet (or to any machine that’s connected to the internet) for a pretty obvious reason: once online, the systems are susceptible to hacking<\/a>. As Wyden told the Senate Rules Committee<\/a> on Wednesday regarding the ES&S situation, “The only way to make this worse would be to leave unguarded ballot boxes in Moscow and Beijing.”<\/p> ES&S has remained pretty tight-lipped about the situation, declining to speak to Motherboard<\/em> and refusing to answer many of Wyden’s questions.<\/p> Ultimately, these pcAnywhere-equipped systems are just one of many vulnerabilities<\/a> in the U.S. voting system, and according to Wyden, there’s only one way to secure our elections from hacking: forget machines altogether and adopt a system in which every citizen votes via a paper ballot.<\/p> READ MORE:<\/strong> Top Voting Machine Vendor Admits It Installed Remote-Access Software on Systems Sold to States<\/a> [Motherboard]<\/p> More on election fraud: A Bipartisan Group of U.S. Senators Has a Plan to Secure Future Elections<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p> The post Manufacturer Confirms Installing Remote-Access Software on U.S. Voting Machines<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> Continued here: CHANGING ITS STORY.\u00a0 Election hacking is at the top of everyone\u2019s mind right now, thanks to the controversy surrounding the 2016 Presidential election. But a new report by Motherboard suggests the issue is far from new. On Tuesday, the outlet published an article in which it claims it obtained a letter sent by Election Systems and Software (ES&S) (the company responsible for manufacturing the majority of voting machines used in the U.S.) to Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) in April Continue reading
Manufacturer Confirms Installing Remote-Access Software on U.S. Voting Machines<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"