Posted on 11/25/2005 12:16:05 AM PST by SmithL
A computer hacker will be trying to break into one of California's electronic voting machines next week, with the full cooperation of the secretary of state.
Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, will be trying to demonstrate that voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems are vulnerable to attacks by computer hackers seeking to manipulate the results of an election.
"This is part of our security mission,'' said Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office. "We want to make sure that every vote is counted and registered correctly.''
The stakes are high for Diebold, one of the nation's largest manufacturers of electronic voting systems. The company is trying to get its new voting system approved for use in California, the nation's biggest market, but Secretary of State Bruce McPherson refused certification after 20 percent of the new, printer-equipped voting machines malfunctioned during a July test in San Joaquin County.
"The secretary said that performance wasn't good enough,'' Demovic said.
The new security test, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, will play a role in Diebold's future certification efforts.
Last May, Hursti and another computer security expert tested a Diebold system for the elections supervisor in Leon County, Fla. They quickly broke into the system, changed the voting results and inserted a new program that flashed the message "Are we having fun yet?" on the computer screens.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Contact any local DNC office and they can tell you how to do it
I'd trust a machine with an electronic trail a hell of a lot more than a bunch of democrats hauling around boxes of paper ballots.
All we need to do in this country is utilize the voting method of Iraq. Haven't heard any complaints from over there. :)
you heard it here first....
voting should be conducted via ATM'S
1. existing system with proven security track record
2. they are located in 100's of times more location than polling places
3. majority of americans have used the system for years
4. You can choose any to vote in
5. Results would be posted by next business day
6. Negative.... they would still probably charge a damn 2.00 fee
I wouldn't. I've been programming computers for 25 years. I'd prefer a paper ballot.
You and theresa Kerry.
I'll take the dibold machine over the Democratic Party machine any day.
What type of ballots did they have in Washington State?
Same here.
And electronic "record" is no record at all when it comes to insiders manipulating the system. A tangible physical record is required.
We use a paper ballot system in Canada and an open monitoring system. It works pretty well (although too many damn people vote for the damn Liberals), results are fast, and the open monitoring system (meaning all parties send reps to count the ballots, and citizens can volunteer to also monitor for fairness and accuracy) prevents tampering.
This Finnish character should try to hack into King County, WA...
It should be emphasized for all who aren't aware-Diebold MAKES ATM's.
<< What type of ballots did they have in Washington State? >>
Criminal alien ballots.
Dead people ballots.
Felon ballots.
Made from the whole cloth ballots.
Ordinary everyday "Democrat" ballots, that is.
As a matter of logic, the results in this case (assuming the guy is honest about whether he cracks it or not) would be definitive proof that either it's crackable or that it isn't. There really isn't any leeway for "not proven" or "inconclusive" or anything like that.
(Hmmm, maybe we'd better have a couple of people try this independently, from both political parties, that way one guy can't quietly crack it and say that he didn't.)
I have zero faith in that RINO, Bruce McPherson. Nada. None. Zip.
"The secretary said that performance wasn't good enough,'' Demovic said.
Excuse me, idiot... er, Mr. Demovic, but with a 20% failure rate you needed the SOS to tell you that? With a performance like that, we ought to be sending Diebold a bill for wasting our tax money with the test.
"As a matter of logic, the results in this case (assuming the guy is honest about whether he cracks it or not) would be definitive proof that either it's crackable or that it isn't. There really isn't any leeway for "not proven" or "inconclusive" or anything like that."
It won't necessarily be conclusive. Though it might be.
If he cracks it, it's conclusive.
If he doesn't, it just means that someone with the amount of time and knowlege he had was unable to crack it in the alloted time. It doesn't mean that someone better or luckier couldn't crack it in less time, or that he couldn't have cracked it given more time.
"voting should be conducted via ATM'S
1. existing system with proven security track record "
Ha ha ha ha. I do the same kind of work as this Harri Hursti fellow - I break into our customers stuff and show them how to fix it and keep the bad guys out.
I've taken over the ATM network of more than one bank (legally - I had permission and the bank paid me to do it), and hacked back end reporting applications, too.
Clipping the wings of the voters and extending the runway is not a good replacement, IMO. Or yours, I see.
We had the diebold machine for the first time here in our precinct in s. Ohio.
It was OK.
There was a separate paper ballot printed, but it did not spit out of the machine, but was internal to the machine. One can lift a door to look at it before it gets scrolled to a central roll of paper, but there's no prompt on the screen to open that door to check the accuracy of the paper ballot.
I missed it when I hit an advance button.
I'm hoping that the scrolled roll of paper is what gets counted and not some communication between the machine I voted on and some central counting location, but I really don't know.
I'd like those objections cleared up before I'm ready to give it a clean bill of health.
Judging from how many times the democrats in King County (WA) kept "discovering" temporarily lost ballots...and amazingly, the timing kept occurring when the Dem candidate was found to be behind.
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