Legislative auditors flag insider cybersecurity risks in Utah election systems; recommend hardware limits

Legislative auditors told the Legislative Audit Committee that hands‑on testing of election equipment identified cybersecurity weaknesses that increase the risk of insider threats and operational disruption, though auditors said they found no evidence that vote tallies had been changed.

The auditors, Jesse Martinson and Jake Dinsdale of the Office of the Legislative Auditor General, told the committee they inspected voting hardware and software in multiple counties, scanned network traffic and wireless signals, and reviewed internal configuration settings and physical ports. “Because of the sensitive nature of the concerns, we’re not gonna go into great detail about specifically what we found,” Dinsdale said, adding that the report’s recommendations target vulnerabilities identified in testing.

Why it matters: The auditors emphasized that Utah’s current layered protections — offline voting equipment,…