Washington – Microsoft support phone number said Friday it will offer free security updates through the 2020 election in the United States – and in other interested democratic countries with national elections next year – for federally certified voting systems running on soon-to-be-outdated Windows 7 software.
An Associated Press analysis previously found that the vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions in the U.S. use Windows 7 by Microsoft customer service phone or an older operating system to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts.
Windows 7 reaches its “end of life” on Jan. 14, meaning Microsoft helpline number stops providing free technical support and producing “patches” to fix software vulnerabilities, which hackers can exploit. Cash-strapped election officials are scrambling to address this issue and what’s essentially a one-year extension on additional costs.
The promise of free updates does not address the cost of putting them in place or the time and cost of certifying such changes to a voting system. Fixing a new vulnerability requires that the companies resubmit the voting system for recertification, which can take weeks or even months.
At a U.S. Election Assistance Commission forum last month, Microsoft helpline number Ginny Badanes, who heads its Defending Democracy Program, said that election administrators should not be forced to make the difficult choice of “using election systems with known vulnerabilities or applying security patches and, in so doing, taking their systems out of certification.”
The commission develops voting system guidelines.
In a blog post Friday, Microsoft support phone number vice president for security and trust, Tom Burt, said the company is working with government officials to try to streamline the lengthy certification process
An Associated Press analysis previously found that the vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions in the U.S. use Windows 7 by Microsoft customer service phone or an older operating system to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts.
Windows 7 reaches its “end of life” on Jan. 14, meaning Microsoft helpline number stops providing free technical support and producing “patches” to fix software vulnerabilities, which hackers can exploit. Cash-strapped election officials are scrambling to address this issue and what’s essentially a one-year extension on additional costs.
The promise of free updates does not address the cost of putting them in place or the time and cost of certifying such changes to a voting system. Fixing a new vulnerability requires that the companies resubmit the voting system for recertification, which can take weeks or even months.
At a U.S. Election Assistance Commission forum last month, Microsoft helpline number Ginny Badanes, who heads its Defending Democracy Program, said that election administrators should not be forced to make the difficult choice of “using election systems with known vulnerabilities or applying security patches and, in so doing, taking their systems out of certification.”
The commission develops voting system guidelines.
In a blog post Friday, Microsoft support phone number vice president for security and trust, Tom Burt, said the company is working with government officials to try to streamline the lengthy certification process
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