During the 2018 midterm elections, nearly 150 West Virginians who lived outside the United States voted in the election using a blockchain-backed mobile app Voatz. West Virginia’s secretary of state, Andrew Warner, in a press conference, revealed that there was an unsuccessful attempt to hack the blockchain voting app Voatz. However, the FBI is currently investigating the matter.
Warner said that in last year’s elections, they had detected activity that might have been an attempt to penetrate West Virginia’s mobile voting process. He added that no penetration occurred, and security protocols to protect the election process worked as designed. The IP address from which attempts were made have been turned over to the FBI.
CNN reported that the hacking attempt might have stemmed from an election security class at the University of Michigan. This was not the first time that the Voatz app was used in elections. Earlier, Denver and Utah County used it for their municipal and primary elections.
Current Democrat Presidential candidate, Andrew Yang had previously called blockchain voting essential. Yang is also a supporter of cryptocurrencies. But the revelation of the hacking attempt might dampen the efforts of making blockchain-based elections any time soon.
