An 11-year-old hacked a faux Florida state website and changed presidential election results
It took Emmett Brewer all of 10 minutes.
In the USA, electoral processes, even when the country chooses its President, appear susceptible to hacking. (It is, of course, a debate that refuses to die in India as well.)
An 11-year-old boy succeeded in hacking a replica of the Florida state website and alter the 2016 presidential election result. Participating in DEFCON 26, an annual hacking convention, Emmett Brewer along with 50 other youngsters under 16, attempted to hack 13 faux websites linked to presidential battleground states.
He succeeded spectacularly. In fact, it was reported that more than 30 children hacked a number of other similar state replica websites in under half hour.
Nico Sell, the co-founder of the non-profit r00tz Asylum, which aims to teach children ethical hacking, said an 11-year-old girl also managed to make changes to the same Florida replica website in about 15 minutes, tripling the number of votes found there.
“These are very accurate replicas of all of the sites,” Sell told PBS NewsHour. “These things should not be easy enough for an eight-year-old kid to hack within 30 minutes, it’s negligent for us as a society.
The video above offers a peep into the possibilities of hacking to change election results.