High-tech elections vulnerable to cyberattacks

Tech-savvy elections have vulnerabilities to foreign influence. / gettyimagesbank

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Whenever elections are held, there are always a group of people who complain about the election results. As we've seen in the April 15 National Assembly elections, some refuse to concede their defeat and take legal action to have the vote recounted, claiming the election is fraudulent.

It's no wonder conspiracy theories are always created by those who lost the election.

However, there are lessons we can learn from conspiracy theories. This time, we can get an idea of how to improve our election system as the current conspiracy theory centers around the critical blind spot of high-tech elections ― cyberattacks.

QR codes on pre-election ballots and tabulation sheets that came out once the machines completed counting ballots were under scrutiny after some raised suspicions about the election results.

The National Election Commission (NEC) has ruled out election rigging, hacking or other types of manipulation by outsiders who were not authorized to have access to the election system.

However, as long as electronic voting is conducted or votes are counted by machines, election systems of any countries have vulnerabilities.

Besty Hart, director of communications of Colorado Secretary of State, said Colorado is 100 percent in agreement that paperless voting is insecure.

"That's why every ballot cast in Colorado has been cast on paper since the Help American vote Act rollout in 2004-05," Hart told The Korea Times. "Colorado's ballot marking devices produce a paper ballot, which serves as the official record of the voters' intentions… Colorado conducts risk-limiting audits, which require paper ballots. This has been a statewide requirement since 2017."

Is South Korea completely free of meddling by outsiders in its elections?

Maybe not. No one can possibly say that South Korean elections are in a safe zone from hacking or manipulation by malicious outside actors. This is particularly so, given the unstable geopolitical landscape of East Asia after China's rise as the world's number two economy.

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South Korea has felt the "tremor" of the clashes of the United States and China in every issue area from security to trade. Tensions between the two world powers over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense in South Korea triggered a lingering diplomatic spat between South Korea and China.

As some experts put it, the position South Korea faced at that time was like a shrimp locked in a fight between two whales, the United States and China.

South Korea was asked to choose between the United States, its closest ally whose role is significant in defending its territory, and China, its largest trading partner.

The rise of China, accordingly, has created a zero-sum game for South Korean diplomacy with the United States and China as the two countries try to remain influential on the peninsula to fulfill their strategic goals in East Asia.

The self-proclaimed Chinese spy Wang William Liqiang, who sought asylum in Australia last year, gave a glimpse of what could happen in South Korean elections.

He claimed that he was involved in China's intervention in the affairs of Hong Kong and Taiwan. He claimed that he infiltrated into Hong Kong with a mission to suppress the free democracy movement there. He also entered Taiwan with a fake South Korean passport and conspired with pro-China media outlets there with an ultimate goal to frustrate President Tsai Ins-wen's reelection in the presidential election.

China denied the allegation, saying Wang is an unemployed fugitive who was convicted of fraud.

It is unknown whether or not Wang had infiltrated into South Korea or had been involved in any activities that could influence local politics or elections.

But the alleged spy ring scandal involving Wang and the Russian influence in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election clearly show that elections could be targeted by foreign countries to create a political landscape that can make easier for them to influence in local politics.

Tech-savvy elections have vulnerabilities to foreign influence. Thus, policymakers and the election commission need to work together to prevent any hacking or manipulation by outsiders.

Although QR codes on pre-election ballots are said to be relatively safe from cyberattacks, this doesn't mean that the South Korean election system has no vulnerabilities. All election processes, from the counting of ballots to the transmission of information, need computers to function properly. These processes are vulnerable to cyberattack if there are corrupt insiders malicious enough to ruin democracy for the sake of their own wellbeing and if they collaborate with outsiders.

It's time to discuss how South Korea can fix its election systems to beef up its security against cyberattacks. This is the critical lesson that can be drawn from the conspiracy theories that are still rampant on the internet.