Security News > 2020 > June > Because things aren't bad enough already: COVID-19 is going to mess up election security assumptions too

The social distancing measures brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic will weaken election security in the US, according to a non-profit's security check.

"Many government personnel must work and access election infrastructure remotely now; so too must vendor personnel," the Brennan report says.

The problem, the Brennan researchers say, is that many of the election security measures put in place over the last few years have been based on the assumption that election officials and workers will either be on-site or working from an office with strengthened core systems.

In the case of election workers these risks are magnified, as they were already targets for state-backed hacking crews eager to get at the inner-workings of local and state voting systems.

The report suggests that while phishing would be the easiest and most-likely attack scenario, aggressors who had the resources and motivation could take things a step further and target the actual devices of election officials and workers with ransomware, rogue apps, or even firmware attacks.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/06/08/lockdown_election_hacking/