machines say it s more efficient, more reliable, and easier to use. a lot of voters are flocking to the touch screen voting equipment. the computer scientists, like hadderman and colleague ariel colleague said it s the internet. you programmed it to play pacman. that s right. pacman. if you have a computer, you change what it does. the brain of the touch screen? take it out. this is an ordinary memory card. if that gets infected, watch out. we have found a virus that will change the election outcome
internet-based voting days before the election but only for the time being. we found some vulnerables so we scaled back. reporter: those that support internet voting and voting by electronic machines say it s more efficient, more reliable and easier to use. a lot of voters are flocking to the touch screen voting equipment. reporter: computer scientists like halderman and a colleague say electronic machines are just as easy to tamper with as the internet. 9 million voters vote on a machine just like this? yes. you programmed it to play pac-man? that s right. reporter: that s right. pac-man. coming after you. oh, yes, i am. when you have a general purpose computer, if you replace its software you can completely change what it does. reporter: the brain of the touch streen machine take it out and this is just an ordinary memory card. reporter: if that gets infected, watch out.
play pac-man. that s right. when have you a general purpose computer, you replace its software, you completely change what it does. reporter: the brain of the touchscreen machine? take it out, and this is just an ordinary memory card. reporter: and if that gets infected, watch out. we have found we can make a voting machine virus that will spread from machine to machine and change the election outcome across a county, a whole state. this is very, very scary and it s a realistic threat today. reporter: and unlike the university of michigan hackers who deliberately left their fight song on as a fingerprint. real hackers would describing, disappear, and likely leave no fingerprint at all. okay.
okay. reporter: d.c. election officials quickly suspended internet-based voting days before the election, but only for the time being. we found some vulnerabilit s vulnerabilities. so we scaled back. reporter: those who support internet voting and voting by electronic machines say it s more efficient, reliable, and easier to use. a lot of voters are flocking to the touch screen voting equipment. but computer scientists like halderman and his colleague say electronic machines are just as easy to tamper with as the internet. 9 million voters vote on a machine like this and yet you programmed it to play pacman? that s right. reporter: that s right, pacman. coming after you. when you have a general purpose computer, if you replace its software, you can completely change what it does. reporter: the brain of the touch-screen machine
am. when you have a general purpose computer, if you replace its software, you can completely change what it does. reporter: the brain of the touch screen machine. take it out, and this is just an ordinary memory card. reporter: and if that gets infected, watch out. we have found that we can make a voting machine virus that will spread from machine to machine and change the election outcome across a whole county, a whole state. this is very, very scary, and it s a realistic threat today. reporter: unlike the university of michigan hackers who left their fight song as a fingerprint, real hackers would strike, disappear and likely leave no fingerprint at all. and, deb joining us live from new york. how long will it take to get the system security again? they estimate it will take