Election hacking has been a hot topic ever since the 2016 U.S. elections. Over the last four years, news cycles have covered everything from misinformation spread across social media to alleged breaches of state voter systems. During the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, we predict that external threat actors will target state and local voter databases with a goal of creating voting havoc and triggering voter fraud alerts during the 2020 elections.
Security experts have already shown that many of the systems we rely on for voter registration and election day voting suffer from significant digital vulnerabilities. In fact, attackers even probed some of these weaknesses during the 2016 election, stealing voter registration data from various states. While these state-sponsored attackers seemed to draw the line by avoiding altering voting results, we suspect their previous success will embolden them during the 2020 election, and they will target and manipulate our voter registration systems to make it harder for legitimate voters to submit their votes, and to call into question the validity of vote counts.
Security Tips: While there isn’t a specific cyber security tip for this prediction, we do have some voter preparedness tips in the event this prediction comes true. First, double-check the status of your voter registration a few days before the election. Also, monitor the news for any updates about voter registration database hacks, and be sure to contact your local state voter authority if you are concerned. Be sure to print out the result of a successful voter registration, and bring you ID on election day, even if technically unnecessary.
Interested in what other emerging threats and security issues might surface next year? Check out the WatchGuard Threat Lab’s complete list of 2020 Security Predictions here.
Leave a Reply