We all know about the hack attacks on the Democratic National Convention and their committees. This includes Hilary Clinton’s computer campaign and the Democrat fundraising committee. The hackers weren’t after funds. They were after private information. This makes the hacking even scarier. Does political hacking equal end of democracy?
Vladimir Putin and the Russian government are the main suspects. ?Then you have WikiLeaks hacking and releasing information. And they promise to do more of it. More states use electronic voting. There’s even talk of voting online. This just adds to the risk of a major political cyber attack on Election Day. Other concerns include deleting votes and/or voter records and hijacking candidates’ website. Hackers could cyberbully candidates, even threaten death to their families. Hackers could use social media to intimidate voters, threatening them if they dared go to the polls. Voting machines can be hacked and tampered with. Don’t think this can happen? In Latin America, it already is. Check out this chilling article from an admitted political hacker. Andres Sepulveda was somewhat of a hacking hit man. He’d be paid over $12,000 a month to hack campaigns. It didn’t matter who it was, just as long as Sepulveda got paid.
I am not writing this to endorse any candidate. But I write this as a grave warning. Intimidation of voters has been done before, even in America. During the Jim Crow era, open intimidation kept many African-Americans from the polls. You don’t think trolls would do the same thing today through a computer or smartphone? Andres Sepulveda got $12,500 a month hacking elections. There are many unemployed tech workers who will do it for even less. Some would even hack an election for free, so long as it supported their cause. And consider how volatile this election already is. And why are we letting foreign governments rig an election? If they can rig our elections, there’s no telling how far they would go. What’s to stop them from saying, “Let’s hack their entire computer networks, their electricity, their military, and knock them back to the early 1800s with an EMP?” And if people think elections are this rigged, then what’s the point of even voting at all? Do you see the potential downfall we’re facing? What can be done to address political hacking? Or am I just being paranoid?