The #DEFCON Voting Machine Hacking Village is critically important to US election security. But I personally believe that the Village should not be advertising and promoting goods or services for personal gain.
Many people have shared similar concerns with me. I say this after searching the twitter feeds of many other villages at #DEFCON to understand if this is a normal activity. It does not appear to be so.
I believe this is a bad example to set for an organization so important. To be clear, if they were raising money for the village itself, I personally think that would be different. Buying machines off eBay ain’t cheap. I know.
I say this with full knowledge that perhaps I will be the first on the village’s blacklist. Yet I hope that if I do something similar in the future that my friends and colleagues in the industry would also call me out.
Election security is national security and I think the village is ultimately making democracies throughout the world more secure. It’s not only making sure ElecTech is more secure, it’s changing the conversation and enabling new viewpoints.
I hope we get new machines in there and everyone rips ‘em apart. I hope election admins, advocates, technologists, and politicians continue to create a beautiful milieu that will protect our nation from intelligent adversaries. But how we get there is important.
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