How the Shadow app broke the Iowa caucus
Watch: An exclusive look at the broken mobile app that was supposed to tally votes during the caucus
A cybersecurity company got hold of the code for Shadow, the app used in the Iowa caucus, and spoke to CNET about what it found.
Results from Monday's Iowa caucus were delayed for days because of problems with a smartphone app used to tabulate and report results, causing chaos and frustration among campaigns and voters. A reported coding issue caused the app to only report out partial data, Iowa Democratic Chairman Troy Price said in a statement.
Cybersecurity company Blue Hexagon obtained a copy of the app, created by a company called Shadow, Inc. Blue Hexagon's head of cyberthreat intelligence and operations, Irfan Asrar, spoke with CNET's Dan Patterson about what went wrong and the overarching cybersecurity concerns this presents for the rest of the 2020 election.
Blue Hexagon is still diagnosing exactly why the app failed. But the final version of the app has several problems within the code, including links to people's personal websites, Asrar said.
"What we believe is, this is an oversight, and an example of the app being rushed into production," he added.
The larger concern is that the app was so easy to obtain, which means anyone could access the infrastructure supporting it and potentially cause damage, Asrar said.
Watch the video for the full interview and more insight into the Shadow, Inc. app.
