Hacks on Louisiana Parishes Hint at Nightmare Election Scenario

While targeting local voting authorities in rural Louisiana may not be especially lucrative to hackers, ransomware attacks — which lock up files with encryption until the victim pays a specific fee — are capable of disrupting voter registration, voting and tabulation, according to federal authorities. Even if hackers time criminal attacks to elections because they believe the added pressure might get officials to pay faster, a wave of well-timed attacks could still create a cloud over results — just as the recent malfunctioning of an app used to transmit caucus data did in Iowa.