Media Advisory: Rice’s Wallach to testify before Congress about protecting elections from cyber, voting machine attacks

MEDIA ADVISORY

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Rice’s Wallach to testify before Congress about protecting elections from cyber, voting machine attacks

HOUSTON – (Sept. 7, 2016) – Dan Wallach, Rice University professor of computer science and of electrical and computer engineering, will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology at the hearing “Protecting the 2016 Elections from Cyber and Voting Machine Attacks” at 10 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

The hearing will review the current voluntary guidelines for protecting voting and election systems, including whether such guidelines and protections are being effectively implemented in advance of the upcoming elections. The committee will also address the research and development underway to protect future voting and election systems.

Wallach, who is also a scholar at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is widely regarded as an expert on voting machine security. He will provide remarks and then take questions from the committee.

Who:  Dan Wallach, Rice University professor of computer science and of electrical and computer engineering, and scholar at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

What: Testimony on 2016 voting machines before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

When: 10 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 13.

Where: Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Joining Wallach to testify before the committee will be Charles Romine, director of the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology; Tom Schedler, Louisiana secretary of state; and David Becker, executive director at the Center for Election Innovation and Research.

Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairs the Committee on Science, Space and Technology; the committee’s ranking member is Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas.

Wallach’s research includes computer security topics, ranging from web browsers, servers and networks to electronic voting technologies and smartphones. Prior to joining the Rice faculty, Wallach earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University and a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California-Berkeley.

For more information, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at 713-348-6327 or david@rice.edu.

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A high-resolution IMAGE is available for download at:
http://news.rice.edu/files/2016/09/Wallach-1200-ofhb8g.jpg
CAPTION: Dan Wallach

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Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,910 undergraduates and 2,809 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for best quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.