ES&S has changed what it’s saying about its election systems. Before my story published it was telling media its backend systems are not connected to internet. Now company is saying “The system that receives those votes is *indirectly* connected to the Internet behind a firewall”
Also, it’s very frustrating to watch local reporters who don’t understand technology characterize that quote as ES&S disputing that the systems are connected to the internet when the statement is actually them admitting that their systems are connected to the internet.
Quote I tweeted yesterday from ES&S has been removed from Florida story where it appeared. But correction history is interesting. Original, if I recall correctly, said: "The system that receives those votes is indirectly connected to the Internet behind a firewall" per ES&S
Wayback machine caught snapshot of a version that reads: "The system that receives those votes is indirectly connected to the Internet behind a firewall, 'us(ing) industry best practices and numerous security safeguards to protect the transfer of the results,'"
That version shows specific words "indirectly connected" not in the direct quote from ES&S but attributed to ES&S spokeswoman. Now a current version of the story has that statement removed entirely and now says the following:
"Election Systems & Software spokesperson ... said ES&S election management systems are not connected to the internet, and cannot connect to the internet in any way." The assertion that the EMS, which is just a PC, "cannot connect to the internet in any way" is remarkable
Does this mean the EMS is physically incapable of connecting to the internet? Or just that it's not supposed to connect to internet? Another statement by ES&S in the story points to the latter. The EMSes are “not permitted to be connected to the Internet,” the spokeswoman says
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