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Pennsylvania's Voting Machines Are Running Windows XP (cbsnews.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the I-voted-I-think dept.

Slashdot reader rmurph04 writes: As reported by CBS News, the battleground state of Pennsylvania might as well have a target on its back as Election Day nears, the cybersecurity company Carbon Black warned in a new report released Thursday. Across the state, most Pennsylvania counties use particularly high-risk electronic voting machines that leave behind zero paper trails, which could be useful to audit the integrity of votes cast. In addition, many of these machines -- called "direct-recording electronic" machines -- are running on severely outdated operating systems like Windows XP, which has not been patched by Microsoft since 2014.

According to the survey more than one in five registered U.S. voters may stay home on Election Day because of fears about cybersecurity and vote tampering. Respondents believe a U.S. insider threat poses the most risk (28%), followed by Russian hackers (17%) and then the candidates themselves (15%).

4 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Re:XP, or Windows Embedded Standard 2009? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Informative

    Microsoft is supporting it to 2019. People have reported, and Microsoft has confimed ta registry hack that lets regular XP and XP Professional also get support by pretending to be Windows Embedded Stardard 2009.

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  2. Not a problem by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Informative

    I vote early. If you can't vote early in your state it's because somebody doesn't want you to. Let that thought sink in for a moment.

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  3. Re:Stay at home, they may try rigging the election by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Who's brain works like this?

    I have no idea who is brain.

    No, the OP seems to be questioning whether the brain of "Who" works like this. Unfortunately, we're no closer to knowing who's Who.

  4. Hyperbole and Strawmen.... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Informative

    The voting machines are NOT connected to the internet. They are also running EMBEDDED XP not desktop XP. No they can not be infected easily unless someone has physical access... and at that point every OS on the planet is easily cracked wide open if the attacker has their hands on the device.

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