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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%).

5 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Stay at home, they may try rigging the election by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What a dumb thought process. Someone may try rig the election so I'm not going to bother going to vote? Who's brain works like this?

    1. Re:Stay at home, they may try rigging the election by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What a dumb thought process. ... Who's brain works like this?

      The same idiots who gave us a choice between Ms. repulsive and Mr. truly scary.

  2. What's the threat model? by Chelloveck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unpatched XP? So what? What's the threat model? Are these things online? I'd be worried about the latest OS running today's patch set online. Are they worried about tampering by election officials? Physical access is access. Again, the latest patches won't help. What threat do they think will be thwarted by current software?

    --
    Chelloveck
    I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
  3. There is a reason for no paper trails in PA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Why would anyone expect otherwise in PA? Their record speaks for itself.

  4. zOMG! Old Is Bad! by kackle · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "...are running on severely outdated operating systems like Windows XP, ..."

    So? News flash: Software doesn't wear out.