Cyber Security

Hacking the White House: Election Fraud in the Digital Age

This thesis is an exploration of not only how credible the threat of a stolen election is given the voting systems operating in the United States today, but also in what ways a theoretical attack might take place and what protective measures can be implemented to prevent an attack. This thesis concludes that: paper trails and audits are effective measures to radically increase the difficulty of attack, future systems need to be designed to balance privacy, usability, transparency and cost, voter education is a vital part of any security strategy, and safeguards against insider influence on the voting process can greatly hinder the scalability of an attack. Elections can be made quite secure if these conclusions are considered, followed and implemented.