How to Hack an Election
This shouldn&#x27;t be a surprise: I think most HN members know that it&#x27;s possible; we know that the rewards (incredible power, status, and everything you can get with them includig the spoils of office) are worth the investment (only $600K for this solution!); we know that there are many people, including politicians, unsavory enough to do it.<p>The question is, why do we pretend it&#x27;s not happening until there&#x27;s a smoking gun?<p>Consider the U.S. presidential election: The outcome is worth billions each to very many parties worldwide; it&#x27;s existential to some foreign governments and actors; many in the U.S. have very powerful ideological motives. How much would it cost to hack voting machines? It seems very likely to me that it&#x27;s happening, though I don&#x27;t know where or to what extent.<p>I know I&#x27;m not the first to point out this risk, but why should we assume that the reported vote count represents the actual vote? Becasue there is no smoking gun yet? That&#x27;s like assuming your critical network hasn&#x27;t been hacked, and doing nothing to protect it, because you haven&#x27;t seen evidence of an attack yet.