Wisconsin to test voter system vulnerability to Russia or other hacking

MADISON - Wisconsin and federal officials plan to gauge how vulnerable the state’s elections systems are to hacking during a two-week test as soon as this spring.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials will simulate hacking attempts, likely in May or June, to determine where the state’s weaknesses are. The program is being planned in conjunction with the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the state Division of Enterprise Technology.

The effort will also include a mock phishing campaign, in which Homeland Security officials will send “simulated malicious emails” to election clerks and others to see how they respond, according to Elections Commission documents.

The commission was briefed Tuesday on the plan, which officials hope will help them quickly detect and thwart hacking attempts.

The assessment will be conducted nearly two years after Russian agents targeted — but did not access — systems in Wisconsin, according to federal officials. The efforts in the summer of 2016 were aimed at a Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development system as Russian government actors looked for vulnerabilities in the state government’s IT infrastructure, according to these officials.

RELATED: Federal authorities didn't tell Wisconsin for a year about Russian involvement in hacking attempts

Separately, the Elections Commission is exploring rolling out electronic poll books to replace the paper poll books that are used to check in voters at polling places.

The Elections Commission is testing the electronic poll books, which they are dubbing Badger Books, at five polling places during the April 3 election for state Supreme Court and local offices.

The Badger Books will be used at polling places in Brookfield, Mequon, Sun Prairie, Beloit and the Town of Trenton in Washington County.

In some locations, the electronic books will be computer tablets; in others, they will be set up similarly to computers in some retail stores, with a screen facing both the voter and the poll worker. The Badger Books include scanners that can read driver’s licenses, making it faster for poll workers to find names in voter lists.

The Badger Books will download polling lists before the election but will not be connected to the internet on election day.

In addition to checking in voters, the Badger Books can register voters and perform other election-related activities.

The Elections Commission plans to have the Badger Books available to all clerks for the Aug. 14 primary and Nov. 6 general election. Local clerks would get to decide for themselves if they wanted to use them or stick with paper poll books.