ALARM BELLS

Report: Widely Used Election Machines ‘Vulnerable to Cyberattack’

Used to count ballots in more than half of U.S. states.

Ballot-counting machines that are used in more than half of U.S. states are vulnerable to cyberattack because of a flaw that was disclosed more than 10 years ago, according to an alarming new report out Thursday. The Model 650 high-speed ballot-counting machine made by Election Systems & Software LLC, the nation’s leading manufacturer of election equipment, was reported for its flaw in a report by Ohio’s secretary of state in 2007. Harri Hursti, an election-security researcher who co-wrote both the Ohio report and new Def Con report, said: “There has been more than plenty of time to fix it.” The Model 650 is still being sold, but a company spokeswoman said it stopped manufacturing it in 2008. The company insists “the security protections on the M650 are strong enough to make it extraordinarily difficult to hack in a real-world environment.” The new report is being delivered Thursday to Capitol Hill.