"A U.S. general election offers one of the most tempting targets for cyber-attack in the history of the Internet, whether the attacker's motive is overtly political or simply self-aggrandizement," the four said in their report.
Simons said that Internet-based voting could be subverted by anyone with a modicum of technical skills, including the traditional teenage hacker, terrorists, or even opposition political parties.
"But what really terrifies me is that this so-called 'experiment' will seem to work, that people will look at the results and because there were no detectable problems this time, conclude that it's a great idea to roll out across the board in 2008," said Simons.
An attack might not even be detected immediately, Simons and her colleagues asserted, just as less threatening Internet-based attacks often go undetected for long stretches. Even if this year's voting goes smoothly, they said, it doesn't mean future elections won't be compromised.
"Future attacks would, in fact, be more likely, both because there is more time to prepare an attack, and because expanded use of SERVE or similar systems would make the prize more valuable," they said.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
