CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A day before the mid-term election, the NBC Charlotte Defenders team is looking into the security of your vote.
Our team found out the Department of Homeland Security is spending millions on election security in North Carolina. NBC Charlotte looked into what’s being done for cybersecurity, specifically the potential risks in the voting process.
NBC Charlotte obtained video of a staged cyber-attack targeting a diesel generator and causing it to self-destruct. The test by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is meant to better understand cyber threats.
Now, fast forward to this election. DHS declared voting systems as “critical infrastructure” similar to water, transportation, and energy systems. NBC Charlotte asked Michael Dickerson, Mecklenburg County Director of Elections, how big of a target is North Carolina’s election system?
“I think after everything we've seen, I think every state's election system can be targeted," Dickerson responded.
The Defenders team looked into what local, state, and federal officials are doing to protect your vote. Dickerson said the voting machines in Mecklenburg County are offline, so they're not at risk for hacking. However, all the data is eventually transferred through a memory device to a statewide system which is online.
“If you are going to hack the internet, that's going to be the first time,” says Dickerson.
NBC Charlotte learned DHS is providing $11 million to beef up voting system security in the Tar Heel State. That included training county boards of election how to detect, prevent, and respond to cyber-attacks.
Dickerson said county employees went through a similar cybersecurity training after Mecklenburg County was hacked last year.
“Just the training of how to open an email or not to open in an email,” said Dickerson.
If something suspicious arises, Dickerson said states are communicating better than ever before.
“We are all now sharing information and aware of who some of these bad actors are,” Dickerson told NBC Charlotte. "It used to be California never talked to North Carolina.”
In all, Dickerson will be overseeing 195 voting locations on Election Day. Mecklenburg is one of North Carolina's 100 counties where public confidence depends on securing the vote.
“I want you to have confidence in our process, knowing that we came out and did everything secure,” said Dickerson.
NBC Charlotte also learned that by the year 2020, all of North Carolina's 100 counties will use paper ballots or machines that produce paper ballots.
