Prof. J. Alex Halderman testifies in front of senate intelligence committee on secure elections

On Wednesday. June 21, 2017, Prof. J. Alex Halderman testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee as a part of the broader Russian hacking investigation. His remarks focused vulnerabilities in the US voting system and a policy agenda for securing the system against the threat of hacking.

Prof. Halderman referenced his ten years of experience in studying and manipulating electronic voting systems and described the broad range of vulnerabilities that exist. He emphasized that “our highly computerized election infrastructure is vulnerable to sabotage, and to cyberattacks that could change votes.”

Prof. Halderman and his colleagues say the U.S. can safeguard elections through: upgrading and replacing obsolete and vulnerable voting machines, creating a paper trail of every vote cast in every state, consistently and routinely checking that election results are accurate, and applying cybersecurity best practices to the design of voting equipment and the management of elections. Prof. Halderman fielded questions from the senators about his research and policy recommendations.

His prepared testimony can be viewed here.

Prof. Halderman also published an editorial in the Washington Post calling for congressional action to better secure elections.