“We took this step, the first of its kind, to further the security and transparency of elections through independent, multi-day testing at an event with more than a dozen researchers..” – Chris Wlaschin, ES&S SVP of Security and CISO
Pilot Program Aims to Further the Security and Transparency of Elections
by Chris Wlaschin, ES&S SVP of Security and CISO
In late September 2023, several of America’s leading voting equipment manufacturers, including ES&S, collectively opened their latest voting equipment to in-depth scrutiny by some of the best, independent cybersecurity researchers in the U.S.
We took this step, the first of its kind, to further the security and transparency of elections through independent, multi-day testing at an event with more than a dozen researchers. Additionally, the 2023 Election Security Research Forum was designed to establish ongoing processes for independent security researchers and election technology providers searching for vulnerabilities under principles of Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD).
ES&S provided researchers access to test a wide swath of its newest election technology with a primary focus on the technology that voters may encounter at a polling site. Specifically, we provided a digital scanner, a ballot marking device, and electronic pollbook. All of the ES&S software configurations tested at the Forum are newly developed and are not yet being used in elections.
The Forum was organized through the Information Technology – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IT-ISAC) and included three leading voting equipment manufacturers: Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Hart InterCivic, and Unisyn Voting Solutions. An independent advisory board comprised of security researchers, security companies, nonprofits, and former state and local election officials selected the security researchers involved in the event.
We were thrilled to be part of this event, and we know the work done by independent researchers will be useful for making further improvements to our equipment. We look forward to hearing from the researchers involved in the Forum over the next several months as they share their findings with us. We will take their findings seriously as part of our ongoing commitment to do everything we can to continue to raise the bar on election security through the principles of CVD.
Click here to read an FAQ about the 2023 Election Security Research Forum.
Click here to read the news release about the 2023 Election Security Research Forum.