Air Gaps vs Flow of Information

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an independent, bipartisan commission charged with developing guidance to meet requirements set out by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), recommends several cybersecurity measures to protect election data against bad actors. 

One critical measure recommended by the EAC is the use of air gapping to ensure that the tabulating machines used to count votes are not connected to any network, which would increase their attack surface to risks such as malware, denial-of-service, and man-in-the-middle attacks, among other risks.

This poses a unique challenge for the election night reporting process: Tabulating machines must remain air gapped to protect them from external threats, but the ENR machines that consolidate the data from the tabulating machines need to be connected to other networks to provide the data to the public and the media.

Securing Removable Media

To allow for secure data transfer without compromising the air gap, removable media devices are used to transfer XML files from the tabulating machine into the ENR system. 

Unfortunately, removable media devices are not without their risks either; they can be exposed to malware and compromised at the supplier level, through a previous use in an infected machine, or through a purposeful infection by a bad actor.

These risks are mitigated through complimentary security controls including:

• Robust vetting during the procurement process
• A detailed chain of custody that tracks the usage and whereabouts of trusted devices
• Ensuring devices that transfer data from an air-gapped machine to any network-connected machine are not reintroduced to air gapped systems. 

To ensure the efficacy of these measures it’s critical that only authorized removable media devices are connected to election technology.

Conclusion

Electronic voting technology provides a valuable productivity and accuracy boon to state, federal, and local governments.

Unfortunately these systems can be manipulated by bad actors if critical security controls are not implemented.

Robust systems, procedures, and controls must be implemented to protect democracy and the population’s faith in the integrity of electronic voting.

AccessPatrol serves an integral role in the modern day electoral process by ensuring that election technology is protected against data security risks posed by insider threats, rogue removable drives, and wireless peripherals.