Voting machines hacked in 2 hours at Defcon

At the Defcon global hacker event, the first of over 30 voting machines was hacked in about one and one-half hours. One hacker explained why they do it: ‘Hacking it is good because it’s able to inform […] If no one ever hacked them, we might be still using things like this.’ Voting machine security has been questioned since voting machines have been used. As Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting noted ‘You can’t hack a piece of paper. Voters can mark it and see their vote, and then the ballots can be collected and double-checked.’ Whether security flaws in voting machines could actually discredit election results is often discussed. The recent US elections highlighted the risks of their basic security and reliability. The ramifications of security breaches include manipulation of results, violations of privacy, and erosion of the credibility of the secrecy and validity of the right to vote.