These 10 US states are at the highest risk for election hacking

States with more federal representatives and larger legislatures have higher rates of election hacking, according to highspeedinternet.com.

As election season approaches, hacktivism is a major concern, according to a recent report from highspeedinternet.com. The report defines hacktivism as "hacking for the sake of activism," or illegally accessing confidential information for political or social causes.

The 2016 presidential elections were plagued by concerns of hacking, which was found to be a real threat, as the voter registration databases of 21 US states were targeted by Russian hackers.

In an effort to keep these states vigilant during the 2018 midterm elections, highspeedinternet.com found the 10 states most likely to be hacked in 2018.

States with more federal representatives experience more hacking incidents, according to the report. Since hacktivism can affect voter and congress member's perceptions, hackers target these states because they feel there is a better chance to actually change policy if there are more politicians present, said the report.

Additionally, states with larger legislatures experience more hacktivism, the report found. The report used the number of hacking incidents from the 2017 FBI crime report, and adjusted for the number of state legislators, finding the number of hacktivist incidents per legislator, said the report.

Based on these factors, the report determined the top 10 states most likely to experience election hacking in 2018:

1.   California

2.   New York

3.   Texas

4.   Florida

5.   Nevada

6.   Arizona

7.   Washington

8.   Colorado

9.   Virginia

10.        Illinois

Eight of the 10 states on the list were among the 21 targeted by Russia in 2016, and those that have been previously targeted are very likely to be targeted again, according to Danielle Root, voting rights manager at the Center for American Progress.

Check out this collection from TechRepublic to learn more about how states handled Russian cybersecurity threats after 2016.

The big takeaways for tech leaders:

·         States with larger legislatures and more federal representatives are more likely to be hacked in 2018 and subsequent years. — highspeedinternet.com, 2018

·         The states most likely to be targeted for election hacking in 2018 include California, New York, Texas, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Colorado, Virginia, and Illinois. — highspeedinternet.com, 2018

·         If the US with the level of IT experience there still face electoral security threats of this nature, that means Nigeria and her INEC electronic voting system is originally programmed for easy access by the Chinese firm managing it with Chinese, Russians and US hackers interference as a norm. — williebellict.blogspot.com