With the approach of the United States’ 2018 midterm elections, concerns have been expressed by many regarding the security and integrity of the voting process. Given the news how suspected Russian agents actively sought to use hacking and influence operations to sway voters in a particular direction during the presidential election, the concern is legitimate, even if there was no evidence that votes were actually altered in 2016. The preservation of the democratic voting process has been thrust into symbolic “red line” territory that needs and should be protected against foreign interference. Indeed, the Department of Homeland Security re-enforced this by elevating election infrastructure to the status of “critical infrastructure” in early 2017.
Clearly, hacking and gaining unauthorized access to those systems and devices associated with the election process is something that deserves immediate attention. After all, many countries would ostensibly agree that breaking into computers is a criminal offense, regardless if data is taken, destroyed, or altered. In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, there were clear incidents where suspected Russian hackers stole data, and even compromised voter-related records, resulting an indictment of Russian nationals on a wide variety of charges ranging from conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, and identity theft, to name a few.