It has been 17 years since I began writing The China Conspiracy and 15 years since its release. This summer the cover
has been updated and a new Foreword
has been added that tells the story of how I conceived of the idea of election
tampering.
You see, before I became a full-time writer, I had
established two computer companies in the Washington, DC area. The first was
oriented toward training in the workplace, and the second involved applications
development and cyber tools. My clients included the Secret Service, CIA and
the Department of Defense.
But my favorite assignment was working as a contractor to
detect Medicare fraud and abuse where I worked with a team of auditors.
Together, we dreamed up ways in which criminals could defraud the federal
government and then we developed programs that could catch them if they
attempted it. Our efforts recovered millions of dollars and sent a few to
prison.
One day in late 2000, I was having lunch with my coworkers
in Virginia. Everyone’s eyes were riveted on televisions with live streaming of
Florida’s recount. As the officials held up pregnant and dimpled chads and
debated the voters’ intentions, I mentioned that it was ludicrous to still be
using such an antiquated system when technology had advanced so far. But as
soon as I said the words, we all looked at one another with the same thought:
how easy it would be to rig an election.
As the weeks passed by, we plotted how it would be done and
how the government could stop such an attack. We had been trained to think like
criminals, from the initial motivation to how the crime would unfold—and the
critical ways in which they would almost invariably screw it up so they could
be caught. It was astonishingly simple to accomplish; all it needed was access
to one voting machine—either remotely or in person—and using the same wireless
technology that is used today to update computers, mobile devices and even
cable and satellite TV, we could replicate the programming to every other
computer. We even knew how to erase the programming afterward so changes to
votes would not leave a trail—a trail being the fatal flaw.
We were not the only ones raising awareness, though.
Universities including Princeton and Johns Hopkins were also demonstrating how
easily voting machines could be manipulated.
Who would be motivated to do such a thing? Anyone that wanted
to control government officials. By selecting individuals soft on certain
issues or hard on others, the criminal could cherry-pick the ones they wanted
in power. I quickly identified who would have the most to gain: China.
When the CIA, FBI, NSA and ODNI concluded that Russia
tampered in the 2016 election, I thought I had gotten it wrong. Russia’s
military and infrastructure had crumbled compared to the Cold War Era between
the Soviet Union and the USA. China was far larger, more populous and had far
more to gain than Russia. But when our intelligence agencies testified before
Congress, they said that China posed as much if not more of a threat than
Russia. CIA Chief Mike Pompeo has said that China has a “much bigger footprint”
than Russia to carry out covert activities. And China has steadily been
learning about our technology, even manufacturing many critical components used
in electronic devices.
But the tampering that occurred by both China and Russia did
not begin in 2016. Most likely it began nearly 20 years ago. This was not—is not—something
that was simply thrown together like a last-minute prank. This was the result
of decades of planning. The United States, for example, declared the Cold War
over. The Former Soviet Union never did. To test how well election tampering or
hacking performed, they most likely would have started with a much smaller target,
such as a local election. Local elections are less likely to have high levels
of security, and some have reportedly allowed employees or even volunteers to
bring home voting machines in the days before an election. These are considered
“soft targets”. All that would be needed is to get to one of those employees—say,
someone they could bribe, blackmail or coerce—into providing access—essentially,
an inside man (or woman). Another method is to hack into the individual’s
wireless network, access the voting machine remotely, infect it, and then
spread the virus to all the others when they came online the day of the
election.
By selecting smaller targets, the criminals could perfect
their methods, growing more emboldened by their success until they were
electing governors, senators and representatives. Comparing polling figures
from multiple sources, one could easily question how so many could be wrong
when the dark horse is elected instead. But it would take years to suspect a
foreign government’s interference. Even now, the focus has been on social media
and sowing discord among Americans.
While no evidence has been released regarding actual vote alteration,
our government has moved forward with more cybersecurity—but progress has been
spotty and inconsistent. One reason for this is when a party is in power, they
are reluctant to admit that a criminal enterprise might have had something to
do with their election. It takes individuals who place America’s security above
all else, serving their country and citizens versus establishing their own
power. I wrote The China Conspiracy without a political agenda; the antagonist is an
Independent, agreeing with the Democrats on some issues and Republicans on
others.
The book is a novelized version; Kit Olsen is a veteran CIA
programmer-analyst when her son is kidnapped. The ransom: Mandarin computer
code covertly intercepted by the CIA. As she tries to get her son back, she
must also break the code—which leads to an unimaginable situation and a
political bonfire. If you enjoy thrillers that are—especially in this case—realistic
plots that will open your eyes to very real possibilities, then you’ll enjoy The China Conspiracy. Best place to buy it is on amazon.
Read an excerpt here, and watch the trailer below.
