Many U.S. officials are fearful of foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. elections, to avoid a repeat of the 2016 election. It is now proven that Russia has interfered with the 2016 Presidential election through misinformation on social media, hacking emails, and probing voter registration systems, but in 2020, the tactics used to influence the election might be more complicated.
The Internet of Things is becoming the foundation of our lives, as it is beginning to control nearly everything from security cameras to thermostats. Unsecured devices are vulnerable to hacking, and many Internet of Things companies prioritize sales over properly securing their devices. In 2016, a botnet utilized unsecure Internet of Things devices and launched a distributed denial of service attack that target popular sites such as Twitter and Reddit, making them unavailable for some time.
Officials fear the same could happen to policial websites in the coming months, with Internet of Things devices being hacked and used to shut down campaign websites, social media, and sites that provide policial information, an arguably much more devious means of interference than 2016, using U.S. citizens own devices to launch these attacks.
Officials also fear that these hackers could plot more complicated attacks such as using Internet of Things devices to generate false weather reports or traffic reports to persuade people not to vote, attack power systems, or creating local emergencies so that voting cannot take place.
In order to preserve democracy, officials are urging citizens to take actions, secure their devices, and be wary of phishing, the spreading of misinformation, and other malicious online attacks.
https://theconversation.com/internet-of-things-could-be-an-unseen-threat-to-elections-132142
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 