From The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington:
It shouldn’t take an MIT genius to figure out that any internet-based voting system can be hacked, but apparently it did.
Last week researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the Voatz app, which has been used in West Virginia and elsewhere by absentee voters and military personnel, has vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to change a person’s vote without detection.
The Voatz developer said the analysts used an older version of the app. It accused them of acting in “bad faith.”
So far the app has been used by fewer than 600 voters in nine pilot elections.
Voatz was used in West Virginia’s elections in 2018 by fewer than 200 voters. No problems were reported.
Last month, the Legislature approved a bill that would allow voters with physical disabilities to use the Voatz app in this year’s election. The bill awaits the governor’s signature or veto. …
Hacking and fraud are a problem anytime a computer is used to conduct business. Pleasant Valley Hospital in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, learned that lesson a few months ago.
According to an article in the Insurance Journal on February 6, Pleasant Valley spent $1 million in technology upgrades to deal with a ransomware attack last year. The virus entered the hospital’s system via emails sent 10 months before the cyber criminals asked the hospital for money, Craig Gilliland, the hospital’s chief financial officer, told the publication. …
