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Attempted Hack Results In Call For More NC Elections Security

PAUL GARBER/WFDD

The State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement wants to boost its monitoring of election equipment, and increase background checks on employees. This comes on the heels of an elections website being hacked last summer.

The News and Observer reports that the board's executive director, Kim Strach, outlined future plans in an address to a Joint Legislative Election Oversight Committee last week.

Strach told the committee there was an attempted hack of state agency websites in June. The hack was quickly shut down after the FBI notified election officials.

Strach recommended that the state board hire more dedicated IT staff with expertise in cybersecurity. And she warned more safeguards should be in place to ensure unsecured voting systems wouldn't be used in elections.

Strach also said the state needs to incorporate a secure online voter registration system.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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