[lit-ideas] more voting insecurity
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 15:24:17 -0400
Some List members may remember Howard Dean hacking the Diebold
election machine on MSNBC. Here's a potential source of election
fraud reported in some of the political blogs. Who needs voter
intimidation when the results themselves can be hacked?
______
http://icantbelieveitsnotademocracy.blogs.com/weblog/2005/week37/index.html
Bradblog has an exclusive story titled: A DIEBOLD INSIDER SPEAKS!.
In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months
after the 2004 Presidential Election, a "Diebold Insider" is now
finally speaking out for the first time about the alarming security
flaws within Diebold, Inc's electronic voting systems, software and
machinery. The source is acknowledging that the company's "upper
management" -- as well as "top government officials" -- were keenly
aware of the "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's main "GEM Central
Tabulator" software well prior to the 2004 election. A branch of the
Federal Government even posted a security warning on the Internet.
Pointing to a little-noticed "Cyber Security Alert" issued by the
United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a
division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the source
inside Diebold -- who "for the time being" is requesting anonymity
due to a continuing sensitive relationship with the company -- is
charging that Diebold's technicians, including at least one of its
lead programmers, knew about the security flaw and that the company
instructed them to keep quiet about it.
"Diebold threatened violators with immediate dismissal," the
insider, who we'll call DIEB-THROAT, explained recently to The BRAD
BLOG via email. "In 2005, after one newly hired member of Diebold's
technical staff pointed out the security flaw, he was criticized and
isolated."
In phone interviews, DIEB-THROAT confirmed that the matters were
well known within the company, but that a "culture of fear" had been
developed to assure that employees, including technicians, vendors
and programmers kept those issues to themselves.
Go and read the whole thing. You know, Canada uses paper ballots in
its elections and the ballots are counted by people, not machines.
And they don't wait days or weeks for election results. It is
cheaper and safer (if voting integrity matters to you). So why did
Ohio and Florida spend so much money buying and implementing
electronic voting machines and scanners? Oh, I thought so.
_________
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001838.htm
The "Cyber Security Alert" from US-CERT was issued in late August of
2004 and is still available online via the US-CERT website. The
alert warns that "A vulnerability exists due to an undocumented
backdoor account, which could [sic: allow] a local or remote
authenticated malicious user [sic: to] modify votes."
"I was aware of the Diebold security flaw and had heard about the
Homeland Security Cyber Alert Threat Assessment website, so I went
there and 'bingo,' there it was in black and white," the source
wrote. "It blew me away because it showed that DHS, headed by a
Cabinet level George Bush loyalist, was very aware of the 'threat'
of someone changing votes in the Diebold Central Tabulator. The
question is, why wasn't something done about it before the election?"
The CEO of North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold, Inc., Walden O'Dell has
been oft-quoted for his 2003 Republican fund-raiser promise to help
"Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
O'Dell himself was a high-level contributor to the Bush/Cheney '04
campaign as well as many other Republican causes.
"A very serious problem...one malicious person can change the
outcome of any Diebold election"
The voting company insider, who has also served as a spokesperson
for the company in various capacities over recent years, admits that
the "real danger" of this security vulnerability could have easily
been exploited by a malicious user or an insider through remote access.
"I have seen these systems connected to phone lines dozens of times
with users gaining remote access," said DIEB-THROAT. "What I think
we have here is a very serious problem. Remote access using phone
lines eliminates any need for a conspiracy of hundreds to alter the
outcome of an election. Diebold has held onto this theory [publicly]
for years, but Diebold has lied and has put national elections at
risk. Remote access using this backdoor means that one malicious
person can change the outcome of any Diebold election."
The ability to connect to the system remotely by phone lines and the
apparent lack of interest by Diebold to correct the serious security
issue in a timely manner -- or at all -- would seem to be at odds
with at least one of their Press Releases touting their voting
hardware and software.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] more voting insecurity
