DNC Email Hack Exposes Potential Vulnerabilities in Voting System Security

According to an expert, 25 states still allow voting by email or the internet, and all states have some kind of on-line registration, which could make them wide open to hacking

Although they say it’s unlikely foreign groups could hack into U.S. voting machines, officials are alarmed that the Democratic Party email hack has exposed vulnerabilities in the electoral voting system’s security, NBC News reported. 

The voting systems aren’t part of the safety net set up by the Department of Homeland Security and are not protected by the federal government because each state runs its own electoral system. 

According to an expert, 25 states still allow voting by email or the internet, and all states have some kind of on-line registration, which could make them wide open to hacking. Experts tell NBC News the computers running the state electoral systems are almost entirely unencrypted, and often don't have backups. 

Officials in Colorado, New York and California all stressed they're making sure no voting machines are ever connected to the internet. This "air gap" makes it impossible to manipulate individual machines remotely.

On Thursday, a bipartisan consortium of homeland security and counterterrorism experts plans to issue a statement raising concerns about the possibility that Russia is seeking to manipulate the U.S. election. The group wants Congress to investigate the hack into the DNC email system. 

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