Monday, August 29, 2016

Townley Jordan - Foreign Hackers Breached State Election Systems

Summary: The FBI found breaches in the voter registration databases in both Illinois and Arizona. They are pushing for an increase in computer security before the election. While this does not necessarily signify intent to manipulate votes, the possibility that other countries, Russia in particular, might be sponsoring hackers in an attempt to mess with the presidential election has officials worried. One official said that these investigative hacks might foreshadow a larger one.  The attack in Illinois was a data breach where the personal information of around 200,000 people was taken. The one in Arizona put malware onto a state employee’s computer. The FBI informed the Arizona officials that the hackers were most likely Russian and gave the hack an 8 on a scale of 1-10 in severity.


Analysis: This article is pertinent to the lives of pretty much any American who has any form of technology or social media. Hackers are a threat to all of us because they can access our phones, tablets, computers, social media, etc. and find out personal information about us that we perceive to be well hidden, when in reality it is easily accessible. This article shows that literally nothing is out of boundaries, with hackers accessing government information for other countries, who most likely do not have the best intentions. This article shows that we as a nation need to up our computer security game, whether it be personal, corporate, or government technology.  Computer security is relevant to our lives today because we store so much information on our computers without giving a second thought to how secure it actually is. This connects to the past because countries have always been out to get information about other countries so that they have a leg up on the competition. During World War II, as well as the Cold War, America and the Soviet Union in particular employed many spies to infiltrate and dig up dirt about what was going on in the enemy country. In present day, hacking is yet another way that we can spy and be spied on.

5 comments:

  1. I definitely agree that our personal information on our phones may not be completely personal. Hacking is becoming a big concern with all the new technology being created, and hackers breaking into voting polls is a very scary and real thing to think about.

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  2. I think that snapchat is a great example of the privacy issue. People think that what they send is not shown to anyone but who they send it to.. but the government as such easy access to it. With all the advanced technology you would assume that every information of yours would be secure..

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  3. Although the technology is here to stay it seems to be too vulnerable and if it could affect the outcome of our elections we should have paper back up to make sure it is correct.

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  4. I agree that security on computers is an issue greatly overlooked by many Americans. Some of us keep rather personal and embarassing things on our phones or laptops, believing that deep in a digital folder is a safe place. However, I do not actually have an abundance of vital or embarrassing information on my phone- unless you count my game save files. I can definitely see how this is a problem for many, though.

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