Remote-access allowed: Voting machine company admits installing vulnerable software

A letter sent to Congress reveals that, between 2000 and 2006, one of America's top voting machine companies installed remote-access software in their products that made it possible for them to be manipulated by third parties. In the letter, Election Systems and Software admitted that it had "provided pcAnywhere remote connection software … to a small number of customers between 2000 and 2006." Motherboard also noted that Election Systems and Software had sent a misleading answer to questions about their voting machines when asked for a New York Times story back in February, claiming that "none of the employees … including long-tenured employees, has any knowledge that our voting systems have ever been sold with remote-access software." In a letter to Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, ES&S claimed it "discontinued providing pcAnywhere over a decade ago, and no ES&S customer is using it today.” Kathy Rogers, the company's senior vice president, clarified that “ES&S voting machines across the nation do not have any form of remote access capability. ES&S has never installed remote connection software on any vote tabulation device it has ever delivered to a customer — nor has it ever been possible to do so”: Between 2000 and 2006, ES&S provided pcAnywhere remote connection software to a small number of customers for technical support purposes on county workstations, but this software was not designed to and did not come in contact with any voting machines.