The State of Democracy: 11-Year-Old Hacks A State Election Replica Website in Just 10 Minutes
At DEFCON 26, the world’s largest hacking convention that recently took place in Las Vegas, an 11-year-old boy managed to hack a replica of the Florida state election website and change voting results in less than 10 minutes. Organizers of the event said that at least 30 children were able to hack similar replica websites in under a half hour, including an 11-year-old girl who completed the job in just under 15 minutes.
One of the attractions of the event was the “DEFCON Voting Machine Hacking Village,” which allowed kids as young as 8 to take a shot at stealing a simulated election.
Nico Sell, co-founder of the non-profit r00tz Asylum, told the
PBS NewsHour that these kids were able to hack sites that were exactly like those used for official elections in the United States.
“These are very accurate replicas of all of the sites. These things should not be easy enough for an 8-year-old kid to hack within 30 minutes, it’s negligent for us as a society,” Sell says.
Sell said that when they first tried a similar challenge last year, adult hackers were able to crack the websites in under five minutes.
“So this year we decided to bring the voting village to the kids as well,” she said.
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The State of Democracy: 11-Year-Old Hacks A State Election Replica Website in Just 10 Minutes