Following an attack on May 1 that prevented election results from being shared online, the Knox County Election Commission and Office of Information Technology have added steps to ensure any future attack does not create the same result.
The computer that tallies results is not connected to the internet, a network or any other computer. Voting information is transferred via an SD card.
Election results are transferred from the tally computer to a second computer that then uploads the results into the county's IT network and onto the county website. The attack in May overwhelmed the county's network, crashing the servers and temporarily preventing the public from accessing results on election night.
Starting with the Aug. 3 election, results will be uploaded to a second website that stands alone from the county's network. The election commission has not announced what that website will be.
"That's done so that in the unlikely even that we have another denial of service attack that brings down our network, people will still be able to see election results," Knox County manager of e-Government Services John Guston said.
Following the May attack, the county hired consultants to provide further security input. Knox County Office of Information Technology Department Head Richard Moran says that all recommendations from consultants have been implemented.
"Any government entity has to take into consideration that they're a target, just like a financial institution is a target," Guston said. "People like to hack government and like to attempt to hack government and so it's just part of the world today that we live in."
Guston says the system for sharing election results is designed to be the simplest and most secure process.
"We feel very confident that we've done everything that we can do," Guston said. "The voting data integrity is there and for somebody to change or alter the votes is physically just not possible."