{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"80,000 Hours Podcast","title":"#64 – Bruce Schneier on how insecure electronic voting could break the United States — and surveillance without tyranny","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":7864,"description":"November 3 2020, 10:32PM: CNN, NBC, and FOX report that Donald Trump has narrowly won Florida, and with it, re-election.  \r\n\r\nNovember 3 2020, 11:46PM: The NY Times and Wall Street Journal report that some group has successfully hacked electronic voting systems across the country, including Florida. The malware has spread to tens of thousands of machines and deletes any record of its activity, so the returning officer of Florida concedes they actually have no idea who won the state — and don't see how they can figure it out. \r\n\r\nWhat on Earth happens next? \r\n\r\nToday’s guest — world-renowned computer security expert Bruce Schneier — thinks this scenario is plausible, and the ensuing chaos would sow so much distrust that half the country would never accept the election result. \r\n\r\nUnfortunately the US has no recovery system for a situation like this, unlike Parliamentary democracies, which can just rerun the election a few weeks later.\r\n\r\n• Links to learn more, summary and full transcript.\r\n• Motivating article: Information security careers for global catastrophic risk reduction by Zabel and Muehlhauser\r\n\r\nThe constitution says the state legislature decides, and they can do so however they like; one tied local election in Texas was settled by playing a hand of poker. \r\n\r\nElections serve two purposes. The first is the obvious one: to pick a winner. The second, but equally important, is to convince the loser to go along with it — which is why hacks often focus on convincing the losing side that the election wasn't fair. \r\n\r\nSchneier thinks there's a need to agree how this situation should be handled before something like it happens, and America falls into severe infighting as everyone tries to turn the situation to their political advantage. \r\n\r\nAnd to fix our voting systems, we urgently need two things: a voter-verifiable paper ballot and risk-limiting audits. \r\n\r\nAccording to Schneier, computer security experts look at current electronic voting machines and can...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/VO1STE7hN95RRg9QdLo4soV2VhhbR9PF5ZZlRhDYcwE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzQxNDAyLzE2ODM1/NDQ1NDAtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}