美国国家公共电台 NPR After DNC Hack, Cybersecurity Experts Worry About Old Machines, Vote Tampering

After DNC Hack¹, Cybersecurity Experts Worry About Old Machines, Vote Tampering²

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Security experts say that Russian government hackers⁴ tapped into the database of the Democratic National Committee and probably other targets. But some officials are worried that votes themselves could be compromised by hackers and potentially tip the results. Now, most states have moved back to paper-backed systems in recent years, but that still leaves a number of states vulnerable, including some political swing states. Zeynep Tufekci is a professor at the University of North Carolina where she studies the social impact of technology. Professor Tufekci joins us now from the university. Thanks so much for being with us.

ZEYNEP TUFEKCI: Thank you for inviting⁵ me.

SIMON: How easy is it to hack into an electronic voting machine?

TUFEKCI: Unfortunately, too easy, and this has been demonstrated again and again by security researchers around the country. In my old workplace at Princeton University at the Center for Information Technology Policy, we had this lounging area with comfy couches and the researchers had decorated the place with a voting machine that had been hacked⁶ to play Pac-Man instead of counting votes (laughter). And they had done this without even...

SIMON: You zany tech people.

TUFEKCI: Well, they had done this without even tampering with the, you know, no-tamper protections the system was supposed to have had. And when they hacked this, the machine had been in use in jurisdictions⁷ around the country with more than 9 million voters. And the worry is in a lot of states that are critical to the election - swing states - they don't even have a paper trail that you can audit⁸ with. That's really worrisome given how crucial elections are.

SIMON: Well, I mean, let me state this to you then this baldly - is it possible that election results could be tampered⁹ with?

TUFEKCI: It's not a straightforward¹⁰ thing in the sense that, you know, the doomsday scenario¹¹ where some foreign power or some domestic player hacks¹² all of them because the machines as a - the election machines we have are a patchwork¹³ of different systems. It's kind of hard to pull off a centralized hack.

SIMON: Yeah.

TUFEKCI: But let's consider Georgia, which is running electronic-only machines. There's no paper trail. And the systems there...

SIMON: This is the state of Georgia, not the country.

TUFEKCI: It's the state of Georgia, of course, and the machines they're using are more than a decade old, so the hardware is falling apart. And the operating system they're using is Windows 2000, which hasn't been updated for security for years, which means it's a sitting duck. And Georgia traditionally votes for the Republican presidential candidate.

Now, this year, some polls are suggesting a close race. And let's assume there's an upset, and there's a 1 percent win by Hillary Clinton. And let's assume that people are objecting because this is kind of unexpected. There's no way to check. I feel this is such an important, crucial thing that security experts have been warning for 10 years, and maybe this attention with the DNC hack can get us focused on this issue that is not new but keeps not getting fix.

SIMON: Well, I say this as a Chicagoan - there was - there has been vote fraud with paper ballots¹⁴, too.

TUFEKCI: Yes. Fraud comes in many ways, and there's no question that there are ways to steal elections based on paper. But it's easier and more possible to describe tamperproof paper protocols¹⁵ and to implement¹⁶ them. And because of security experts' concerns, a lot of states have moved to paper trails.

The number of states that don't have it include all of Georgia, parts of Pennsylvania, few places even in Florida. And Ohio does have a paper trail, but experts say it's not a reliable and worthy¹⁷ one. So the number of states that are still affected¹⁸ in part or in full by having no paper trail number 12 to 15, depending on how you count, and potentially up to 60 million voters, enough to swing an election.

SIMON: I guess we're thinking of foreign hackers or somebody with an interest in the election, but the way you describe it, it could also be a couple of 17-year-old students at - new to your high school.

TUFEKCI: I don't find the foreign power meddling¹⁹ in U.S. elections that likely because the stakes are so high. I mean, if a foreign country comes, meddles²⁰ in U.S. elections, they know the U.S. will retaliate²¹ very hard against something like that. So I'm not that worried that it's going to be a foreign power, but this lack of security means a corrupt²² official, as you say, a teenage hacker³.

We're just losing votes and not even knowing that you lost the votes. All of those are very real possibilities. So while we imagine these apocalyptic²³ scenarios²⁴ of some foreign power meddling, the real issue is we have the thing falling apart in 10 different ways that we're not fixing.

SIMON: Zeynep Tufekci is a professor at the University of North Carolina. Thanks very much for being with us.

TUFEKCI: Thank you for inviting me.

1 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

2 tampering   

v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄

参考例句：

• Two policemen were accused of tampering with the evidence. 有两名警察被控篡改证据。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• As Harry London had forecast, Brookside's D-day caught many meter-tampering offenders. 正如哈里·伦敦预见到的那样，布鲁克赛德的D日行动抓住了不少非法改装仪表的人。 来自辞典例句

3 hacker   

n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客

参考例句：

• The computer hacker wrote that he was from Russia.这个计算机黑客自称他来自俄罗斯。
• This site was attacked by a hacker last week.上周这个网站被黑客攻击了。

4 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

5 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

6 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

7 jurisdictions   

司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 )； 裁判权； 管辖区域； 管辖范围

参考例句：

• Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
• James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。

8 audit   

v.审计；查帐；核对；旁听

参考例句：

• Each year they audit our accounts and certify them as being true and fair.他们每年对我们进行账务审核，以确保其真实无误。
• As usual,the yearly audit will take place in December.跟往常一样，年度审计将在十二月份进行。

9 tampered   

v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄

参考例句：

• The records of the meeting had been tampered with. 会议记录已被人擅自改动。 来自辞典例句
• The old man's will has been tampered with. 老人的遗嘱已被窜改。 来自辞典例句

10 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

11 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

12 hacks   

黑客

参考例句：

• But there are hacks who take advantage of people like Teddy. 但有些无赖会占类似泰迪的人的便宜。 来自电影对白
• I want those two hacks back here, right now. 我要那两个雇工回到这儿，现在就回。 来自互联网

13 patchwork   

n.混杂物；拼缝物

参考例句：

• That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
• She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。

14 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

16 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

17 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

18 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

19 meddling   

v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He denounced all "meddling" attempts to promote a negotiation. 他斥责了一切“干预”促成谈判的企图。 来自辞典例句
• They liked this field because it was never visited by meddling strangers. 她们喜欢这块田野，因为好事的陌生人从来不到那里去。 来自辞典例句

20 meddles   

v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Who meddles in all things may shoe the gosling. 闲事样样管，时间白白丢。 来自互联网

21 retaliate   

v.报复，反击

参考例句：

• He sought every opportunity to retaliate against his enemy.他找机会向他的敌人反击。
• It is strictly forbidden to retaliate against the quality inspectors.严禁对质量检验人员进行打击报复。

22 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

23 apocalyptic   

adj.预示灾祸的，启示的

参考例句：

• The air is chill and stagnant,the language apocalyptic.空气寒冷而污浊，语言则是《启示录》式的。
• Parts of the ocean there look just absolutely apocalyptic.海洋的很多区域看上去完全像是世界末日。

24 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓