VR Systems is a provider of elections technology systems and software. VR Systems is based in Tallahassee, Florida.[1][2] The company's products are used in elections in eight U.S. states.[3] The company was founded in 1992 by Jane and David Watson.[4][5][6] The CEO and President is Mindy Perkins.[7][8]
History
VR Systems was founded in Florida in 1992 and grew its voter registration system, VoterFocus, in the years following the passage of the Help America Vote Act in 2002.[6] In 2004, in response to devastation caused by Hurricane Charley in South Florida, VR created the EViD electronic pollbook designed to check in voters at central locations as many of the precincts in the area had been destroyed. VR Systems attends the United States Department of Homeland Security executive committee and initiates a cybersecurity communications education program, revealing their working process with election administrators nationwide. Today, most counties in Florida use VR products. In 2010, VR became a 100% employee-owned company.[9]
Russian hacking controversy
VR Systems Phishing Alert to Mecklenburg County
VR Systems was reportedly targeted by operatives of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) in and around August 2016.[5][10][11] Russian actors also attempted to impersonate VR Systems by creating a false email address as part of a spear phishing campaign targeting state electoral officials.[5][12][11] There are no reports that the spear phishing campaign was successful. VR Systems insisted that none of its employees fell for the Russian phishing scam and that none of its systems were hacked.[13][14] The investigation by North Carolina has been proved inconclusive.[11][15]
Timeline of Russian hacking controversy
On August 24, 2016, Russian hackers sent phishing emails to VR Systems.
On August 30, VR Systems experienced an election-reporting mishap during the state primary in Broward County, Florida, when preliminary vote totals were posted live before the election ended.
On September 30, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) held a conference call with Florida election officials warning them to look out for suspicious activity coming from specific IP addresses. VR Systems, which is on the call, discovers activity from the IP addresses and notifies the FBI. On October 31, Russian hackers sent spear-phishing emails from a fake email[16] account to more than 120 election officials in Florida, North Carolina, and other states. If opened, the documents attached to the email would invisibly download a malware package that could have provided the attacker with remote control over a target’s computer.[17] VR Systems immediately alerted its clients and notified the FBI, but the company could not fully estimate the scope of the attack.
On Election Day, November 8, Durham County, North Carolina, experienced problems with its VR Systems poll book software in five precincts.[18] State officials immediately ordered Durham County to abandon the laptops in favor of paper printouts of the voter list to check in voters. However, the switch caused extensive delays at some precincts, leading an unknown number of voters to leave without casting ballots.[19]
Products
VR Systems offers the EViD[20] electronic pollbook,[21][22] Voter Focus voter registration software, ELM online training and website services specifically designed for the elections community.
EViD electronic pollbook
The EViD electronic pollbook, short for Electronic Voter Identification, is available as a tablet, an all-in-one station or customized for an existing device. More than 14,000 EViDs were in use during the 2016 elections in eight U.S. states: California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia. [23] It was used in 23 of North Carolina’s 100 counties and in 64 of Florida’s 67 counties. The latter include Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county.[11] It is proceeded with four steps: 1. Plug in the activator, connect to any network wired or wireless. 2. Voters sign for their ballot at an EViD terminal and receives ballot ticket. 3. The voters take their ballot ticket to get their ballot. The custom ballot is printed through the DirectPrint printing option. 4. Voting data is processed automatically and device could be packed up.[24]
Voter Focus
Voter Focus is an elections management solution before, during, and after election day. This solution organizes the election cycle, including voter registration, mail ballot delivery, precinct look-up, poll worker management, candidate requests. Voter Focus comes automatically with software updates, compliance updates and extensive built-in Q&A capabilities.[25]
ELM
ELM is an online elections training platform designed specifically for election worker training. Each jurisdiction can create custom training by reusing existing media content or content from the ELM collaborative library.[25]
VR Tower
VR Tower is designed for elections officials who would like a complete website solution with maintenance tools. The websites specifies in politician-voter communication.[25]
^Hoskinson, Cyd (July 19, 2018). "Local Election Supervisors Explain Cyber Security Precautions". WJCT. Duval County uses voter information software made by Tallahassee-based VR Systems, which is the company Russia reportedly tried to hack in 2016 by sending malware infected emails to local elections offices.
^Bomey, Nathan; Burlew, Jeff (June 6, 2017). "Russian hacking attempt targets small elections-technology industry". USA Today. VR Systems was founded in 1992 by David and Jane Watson of Tallahassee, in part to help the Leon County Supervisor of Elections Office move its voter registration data from the county's mainframe to a custom-made system.
^ ab"VR Systems Announces New President". VR Systems, Inc. June 10, 2015. Archived from the original on July 20, 2018. VR, founded in 1992, established a strong Florida client base which expanded rapidly following the passage of HAVA in 2002.
^Schneider, Mike (June 19, 2017). "Florida voter-registration firm denies it got hacked". Orlando Sentinel. "When something like this happens, it hurts us and hurts us as an elections community," VR Systems CEO Mindy Perkins told supervisors Monday at the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections conference in the Polk County city of Davenport
^Norden, Lawrence (July 16, 2018). "Mueller's Latest Indictment Suggests Russia's Infiltration of U.S. Election Systems Could Get Worse". Slate. We already know that hackers targeted election systems in 21 states and allegedly hacked into the computers of a private U.S. elections systems vendor. (The indictment did not name the vendor, but details seem to match a reported hack of the company VR Systems; VR Systems has denied any breach had occurred.)
^Weise, Elizabeth (June 6, 2017). "Russian hackers' election goal may have been swing-state voter rolls". USA Today. In this case, the Russians identified staff at VR Systems that provided consulting and support services to local election entities across the United States, The Intercept reported. Posing as staff at those vendors, hackers sent local election workers carefully-faked phishing emails that contained malware hidden in a Microsoft Word document. When the worker opened the document, that would have allowed the attackers to gain a beachhead in multiple election jurisdiction networks.
