Nation's top hackers find flaws in voting machines to be used in November

The best hackers in the country once again found security flaws in the voting machines that will be used during the upcoming election in November. The only problem is that this time, there won't be time to fix most of the vulnerabilities in the digital voting systems.

That's one of the conclusions reported by Politico after covering DEF CON 2024, the hacker competition held each year in Las Vegas that brings together the world's top cybersecurity experts.

Every August, these hackers test voting systems. And every August, bugs are discovered that hackers expose for the authorities to work on fixing. However, these security patches are only implemented the next election cycle, and this time there will not be time to fix many of the bugs uncovered by the DEF CON 2024 hackers.

The hackers managed to find these security breaches in just over two days. Those interested in altering election results in the United States could count on much more preparation and many more means.

Imminent danger in an election year

This comes in an election year when the reliability of the voting and canvassing systems will be very much under the microscope. President Donald Trump accused Democrats of alleged voter fraud that took the White House from the Republican.

As a result, the security of digital voting and canvassing systems will be a crucial point in the November polls. "As far as time goes, it is hard to make any real, major, systemic changes, but especially 90 days out from the election," Catherine Terranova, one of the organizers of the DEF CON Voting Village hacking event, told Politico. She argued that this is especially worrisome during "an election year like this."

According to Politico, Voting Village organizers plan to release a full report in the coming weeks detailing the vulnerabilities detected in this cycle. According to Voting Village co-founder Harri Hursti, as of Saturday afternoon, these vulnerabilities ran "several pages." While Hursti declined to comment on the exact problems found, the number was fairly consistent with previous years.

The organizers of the hacking contest stress that the security breaches found in each edition of DEF CON are not simple bugs. For this reason, they do not have solutions that can be applied quickly with an update. They regret that, despite the reports they send, the companies that produce the digital voting systems cannot take immediate action.

These fears bring back to the table the debate about the suitability of digital voting systems and whether a system comprised exclusively of physical ballots should be the only option.