Consider all tabulation systems infected by bad actors until a third party, not affiliated with the manufacturer or election officials, proves they are secure.

What do you mean “Should we worry about cyber adversaries getting into state voter registration databases?” They’re already in and selling exfiltrated voter registration data on the dark web! Next election cycle black hats will be selling ‘access as service’.

The collaboration between secretaries of state, election officials and the voting system manufacturers on the matter of enforcing this black box proprietary code secrecy with election systems, is nothing less than the commoditization and monetization of American Democracy

You think an Air Gap is a defense? Sofacy, Stuxnet, Uroburos, AirHopper, BitWhisperer and ProjectSauron…enough said!

Between the black box proprietary code, barebones computers we call voting machines and a mass of completely unqualified election officials, our election system is up for grabs to anybody with even a modest interest and some script kiddie capability. The cyber-kinetic attack surface here is wide open.

It's time to wake up and smell the Mutating Hash! Signature Based Malware Detection is Dead

Senator Markey’s Cyber Shield Act can work! Start the conversations with the basics: Use a QR code that attaches to a dynamic database that runs an artificial intelligence algorithm to calculate the score. Let’s not make this more difficult than it is.

Ransomware is not only about weaponizing encryption, its more about bridging the fractures in the mind with a weaponized message that demands a response from the victim.

As we’ve already seen with exfiltrated voter registration databases and the endless methods of poisoning manufacturer updates, manipulating DRE and optical scan machines and bypassing air gap defense, the state election official’s illusion of security is being pummeled by the reality of cyberattack.