A review of the software responsible for compiling voter rolls in New Hampshire reportedly found that it was connected to servers outside the United States.
According to Politico, the Ukrainian anthem was found embedded in the source code of a New Hampshire voter database, the development of which was apparently outsourced to offshore programmers.
Election officials previously decided to replace the state's voter registration database ahead of the upcoming 2024 presidential election and reportedly turned to a small Connecticut IT firm called WSD Digital to develop the software.
However, when the completed project was reviewed, it was discovered that the firm had moved some of the work overseas. Given that this created the risk that unknown coders outside the U.S. would gain access to the software and potentially manipulate voter rolls, New Hampshire officials hired a forensics firm to examine the code for signs of hidden malware.
The investigation reportedly uncovered a number of “unpleasant surprises” Politico said, citing a person familiar with the investigation, that they included the use of open-source code, software that was improperly configured to connect to servers outside the country, and the lyrics to the Ukrainian national anthem.
“The programmer hard-coded the Ukrainian national anthem into the database, apparently in solidarity with Kiev,” Politico wrote.
However, government officials said none of the findings constituted evidence of wrongdoing and that all issues were addressed by the company responsible for developing the database before it was put into use.
“It was a disaster averted,” A Politico source noted that hackers could potentially exploit the vulnerabilities to edit state voter rolls or use them to fuel election conspiracies.
While a potential disaster in New Hampshire appears to have been averted, Politico said its own six-month investigation into the matter suggests similar problems could arise in other states due to a lack of oversight over the development of voting software.
“Technology vendors creating software used on election day face razor-thin profit margins” The publication writes that this leaves little room for important investments in security and leads to many states lacking a rigorous system for verifying what actually ends up in election software.
Meanwhile, the FBI said last month that “confident” that Iran was trying to interfere in the upcoming November elections and allegedly sought to gain access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties.
However, Tehran rejected the accusations, calling them “unfounded and without any basis” and insists that he does not intend to interfere in the US elections.
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