Princeton Prof Hacks E-Vote Machine

[WhiteTara]

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/09/13/ap3015420.html

A Princeton University computer science professor added new fuel Wednesday to claims that electronic voting machines used across much of the country are vulnerable to hacking that could alter vote totals or disable machines.

In a paper posted on the university's Web site, Edward Felten and two graduate students described how they had tested a Diebold AccuVote-TS machine they obtained, found ways to quickly upload malicious programs and even developed a computer virus able to spread such programs between machines.

The marketing director for the machine's maker - Diebold Inc.'s Diebold Election Systems of Allen, Texas - blasted the report, saying Felten ignored newer software and security measures that prevent such hacking.
SNIP

Felten said he and his colleagues felt it necessary to publish the paper as quickly as possible because of the possible implications for the November midterm elections.

About 80 percent of American voters are expected to use some form of electronic voting in the upcoming election, in which the makeup of the U.S. House will be decided, as well as 33 Senate seats and 36 governorships.

Much more

[truthisfreedom]

1. blasted the report... even though it is proof that the last elections were

rigged. what a crock. cudos to this professor.

[WhiteTara]

2. more important info from same article

Previous studies have claimed hacking vulnerabilities with the machines. But Felten claims his study is the first time that an independent research group has obtained an actual machine and tested it extensively.

Felten and graduate students Ariel Feldman and Alex Halderman found that malicious programs could be placed on the Diebold by accessing the memory card slot and power button, both behind a locked door on the side of the machine. One member of the group was able to pick the lock in 10 seconds, and software could be installed in less than a minute, according to the report.

The researchers say they designed software capable of modifying all records, audit logs and counters kept by the voting machine, ensuring that a careful forensic examination would find nothing wrong.

The programs were able to modify vote totals or cause machines to break down, something that could alter the course of an election if machines were located in crucial polling stations.

It was also possible to design a computer virus to spread malicious programs to multiple machines by piggybacking on a new software download or an election information file being transferred from machine to machine, Felten said.

[wakeme2008]

3. Watch the video here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2129557

It is enough to make you :grr:

[texpatriot2004]

4. No Transparency = No Democracy nt

[rzemanfl]

5. I was amazed by how fast the lock was picked. n/t

[Kutjara]

6. The kinds of locks used on these machines are...

...similar to those used on mailboxes and can therefore be opened using the 'bumping' technique in under 10 seconds, even by inexperienced amateurs. There were several articles about bumping a month or so ago, when the technique was demonstrated at the DefCon hackers convention. An eleven year old girl was given a few minutes of instruction in bumping and was quickly opening locks in under ten seconds.

Here's an article on bumping. What's interesting is that it says that '90% of locks' in everyday use are vulnerable to the technique. So it might be worth looking at your home security, too. http://www.hackaday.com/2005/08/24/lock-bumping-revisited/

[rzemanfl]

17. Each month that * is in office my worldly goods become less

attractive to thieves. I will worry about my locks later in the Administration when people start doing burglaries for food.

[BattyDem]

7. How long before Diebold sues the Prof for breaking in to their machine?

:eyes:

[high density]

8. Their paper is a very good read for geeks like me.

http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/ts-paper.pdf

There's plenty of good info without actually showing the code that they used to attack the machine.

[Nostradammit]

9. Allen, Texas. Just north of President George Bush Turnpike.

Honestly, does anything good come out of Dallas, Texas?

[Nostradammit]

10. Looks like Diebold's making their machines in a cow pasture -

Hmmm...

[radwriter0555]

11. It would be awful if some non-republican people hacked those machines on

election day and totally hijacked and jacked and ruined the results.

People would have to be willing to go to jail to prove how vulnerable the machines are, with statements prepared BEFORE the election to make clear their intent.

A nationwide machine hack in public and out in the open.

Instead of letting the republicans do it behind the scenes, get out and do it in public.

It would be revolutionary.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

14. I still can't believe that this hasn't happened yet

All it will take to get rid of these machines is, apparently, some very simple hacking that throws 100% of the vote towards the Socialist candidate or something ridiculous like that.

As soon as the riggable voting isn't being rigged to help out big business/Republicans, they'll disappear pretty damn quickly.

[radwriter0555]

15. It would be an effective solution.

Not that I would condone such an action.

[Kurovski]

12. Kick(nt)

[radwriter0555]

13. KICK

[SoCalDemGrrl]

16. Double Kick

[katty]

18. K&R - this demo is says it all about the state of U.S. DeMOCKracy