Computer scientists reveal new voting machine hack successfully changed votes

[AsahinaKimi]

Source: Raw Story

Computer scientists reveal new voting machine hack successfully changed votes
By David Edwards and John Byrne
Published: August 12, 2009

A team of computer scientists at University of California, San Diego, the University of Michigan and Princeton University announced a new way to electronically steal votes Monday.

“We wanted to find if a real criminal could do this, starting from scratch, with no access to source code or other closely guarded technical information,” the announcer begins. “We faced several challenges: getting a voting machine, figuring out how it works, discovering a weakness, overcoming the machine’s security features and constructing attack software.”

“In the end we found that it is possible to undetectably change votes and that such an attack takes a lot less time and money than one might expect,” the announcer said.

A Princeton professor was able to acquire five voting machines for just $82 that had been resold on a government surplus website. The acquired machines were originally sold by Sequoia Voting Systems.




Read more: http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/12/computer-scientists-reveal-new-voting-machine-hack/

[Zorra]

1. Dennis Kucinich once said:

"An open and honest examination of the flaws in electronic voting will lead us to only one possible conclusion: electronic voting machines are dangerous to democracy because there is no way of ensuring their accuracy".

Yep.

It's past time for our Democratic Congress to pass a Constitutional Amendment forbidding the use of any electronic voting apparatus in any Federal, State, County, or local election.

[brendan120678]

8. The only problem I foresee with requiring...

paper balloting, is that in today's fast-paced, 24-hour news lifestyle, people will be upset if they don't get the results immediately after the polls close.

[Kelvin Mace]

11. Paper ballots can still be

machine counted, then randomly hand-counted to verify machine accuracy.

It's the law in our state.

[brendan120678]

13. That's true.

We actually do the same here in Connecticut.

Optically scanned ballots that are computer tabulated, and the ballots stored in case of recount.

Additionally, a certain percentage of the ballots have to be recounted by hand at a later date to verify the computer tabulating results.

[merwin]

15. How random is random though?

Ohio did a random sample as well, and look how well that turned out.

[SharonAnn]

24. Aaah, but Ohio's wasn't random, and then didn't actually check paper ballots.

[merwin]

35. That's what I mean. The people of Ohio thought that they had a random recount.

And look where it got them.

We can never get a truly fair electoral process unless all of the bums are thrown out... and that won't happen until the electoral process is changed.

Nice Catch 22 there.

[JHB]

26. Even better if the machine counting were just considered a preliminary count...

...but the official count was a hand counting of all the ballots.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. Maybe people need to learn that some things require patience

and accuracy.

[Zorra]

17. Yep. And the counting of votes is absolutely one of those things that requires

accuracy.

This country was brought to the brink of ruin as a result of an inaccurate vote count in 2000.

[KakistocracyHater]

22. yes & look here these people are upset about

"the direction America is going", do you think they mean the last 8 years? Or is it just since their guy went out?

http://wefollow.com/twitter/912

[kenfrequed]

29. To hell with that.

I am sorry but Democracy isn't supposed to be easy. It is grown up stuff that is supposed to be considered and rational. Hell for that matter you could probably save a lot of money and get a lot of people in and out of the polls faster if you just installed good old fashioned voting booths and tossed the damned machines.


For that matter is there not a certain time where faster is no longer better?

Is fast food better?
Was the passing of the largely unread Patriot act better because it was done faster?
Are Cliff notes the superior of the they are supposed to represent?
Is the ability to Fast-track trade deals a good thing?

And is 24 hour cable news really a better thing?

There are some things that need to be digested and considered in life.

[brendan120678]

30. I don't disagree with you...

I'm just saying it seems like everybody in today's "modern society" wants instant gratification.

[drm604]

31. Then let them be upset. n/t

[L. Coyote]

2. K & R.

Albeit, I accidentally hit unrec!

[Umbram]

4. The irony! (nt)

[kentauros]

6. No, you actually hit the rec button

but the software on the site changed your vote :P

[Libertas1776]

7. I tried to

recommend this threat but when I clicked rec, all it did was vote for Pat Buchanan :shrug:

[jmowreader]

18. Are you a 79-year-old Jewish woman who lives in Palm Beach County?

[young_at_heart]

3. Could this happen with an ATM machine or any store transaction?

I think not!

[kentauros]

5. Technically, it could

but the financial institutions make sure it won't by not allowing Diebold to make the software proprietary (as I recall it being explained at one time in the past around here...) That way, the banks can ensure the security of their systems.

Why can't we the people have this kind of software security?

[Downwinder]

12. also why you get a receipt.

[eridani]

27. Actually it could, but it doesn't make any difference

You can't have a secret ballot with a transaction number linking a ballot to your name. With ATMs and banks, there is a unique transaction number linking buyer, seller and bank. If there is a screw-up, you have months on end to get it corrected. You have no way of finding or correcting a ballot, and people keep insisting on speed over accuracy for vote tallies.

BTW, Diebold boasts of its open source software on its website--for ATMs, that is. Elections departments put up with shit that no bank would tolerate for a second.

[Kelvin Mace]

9. I love this paragraph

“We wanted to find if a real criminal could do this, starting from scratch, with no access to source code or other closely guarded technical information,”

"closely guarded technical information"????!!!!

You mean like the source code for Diebold's programs sitting out on unprotected public FTP sites?

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Stevepol]

19. "A real criminal"? You want to find one. We got your real criminal right here.

What about Jeffrey Dean, who had spent five years in the slammer for using computers to embezzle a good chunk of money from a law office, before becoming (a few years after his release) the senior vice-president of the firm that was bought up by Diebold as GEMS, Global Election Management Systems, the group that programmed the Diebold machines in their debut in GA in 02. It was quite a debut by the way. Max Cleland who had a 5% lead in pre-election polling, was defeated by about 8% points, a 13 pt flip, and Governor (ex-gov) Roy Barnes, who had about an 11-point lead in the same pre-election polls lost by 5 % points, an 11-point flip.

Incidentally, the judge who sentenced Dean specified that Dean should never be given a job that involved the counting or management of money.

[The Sushi Bandit]

10. Sorry: Not LBN!

I posted this story with video on Monday! : http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=470689&mesg_id=470689

[spirit of wine]

16. Ah, to be a republican now - ouch!

When it rains it pours Does this mean 8yrs for naught? heh, heh, heh.

[chollybocker]

20. Ironically...

“We faced several challenges: getting a voting machine, figuring out how it works, discovering a weakness, overcoming the machine’s security features and constructing attack software.”

These were never 'challenges' for the original GOP insiders who designed and programmed the voting machines.

[annabanana]

21. Now is the time that we should push for reform..

You KNOW we would always win if the votes were fair!

[JohnWxy]

23. recommended, bookmarked.

[loudsue]

25. kickin it

There is still a question in my mind as to how many votes were stolen in this past election. For every one republican vote at my precinct in 2008, there were AT LEAST 70 Dem votes. The final tallies for our county sure didn't reflect it. I have a feeling it happened far & wide.

[Peace Patriot]

28. There is absolutely no justification for 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code

in our voting systems. None! Zero! Zilch! It is INSANE.

Add to this--ADD TO THIS!--that there are virtually NO audit/recount controls anywhere, and you have a "made to order" system for stealing elections.

The key to how this insanity was unleashed upon us is that NO REQUIREMENT for audit/recount controls was included in the Anthrax Congress legislation which appropriated $3.9 million to fast-track these election theft machines all over the country, during the 2002 to 2004 period. Thus, Diebold (now "Premier"), ES&S, and Sequoia--the big three, all with rightwing connections--were free to lobby the states for NO CONTROLS AT ALL, and got that in most cases. Currently, in the best states, only a 1% audit is done. In about half the states, there is still no audit at all.* This is, to repeat, insane. It is insanely non-transparent. It is insanely anti-democratic. It is insanely tyrannical. It gives to private, highly political, rightwing corporations the power to "play the system" any way they wish, in the interest of war profiteers and global corporate predators. Is it time to blame a Democrat for the mindboggling thievery and other crimes of the Bush Junta? Let an Obama win, and start the corpo/fascist media drumbeat against him just about now, maybe squeeze the poor some more and get some food riots going, or fund/organize some rightwing brownshirts to disrupt town halls--create civil disorder-- then Diebold him out of office and bring in Hitler II (for whatever purpose they want--the final destruction of the progressive American middle class; Oil War II-South America, etc.) Is a "Blue Dog" Congress needed to help curtail Obama's reformist tendencies? Natch! No problem.

'TRADE SECRET' code is not the only thing wrong with our election system, for sure. But it is the final blockade against democracy, barring any significant reform, including election reform itself. Without transparent vote counting, we have no hope at all of any significant change.

-------------------------------

*(By contrast, Venezuela's electronic system is run on OPEN SOURCE programming code--anyone may review the code by which votes are counted--they, of course, have a paper ballot backup, and they conduct a whopping 55% audit (automatic hand-count) as a check on machine fraud. The code in our system is a SECRET. We do not have the right to review it. AND, the results it produces are essentially NOT AUDITED. Maybe that's why Venezuelans have had universal medical care for some time now, free university educations, good contracts with the oil multinationals that give the people of Venezuela a 60/40 split of the profits, food and education subsidies for the poor, grants and loans to small businesses and worker co-ops, high voter turnouts and high levels of citizen participation in government and politics, $143 billion in international cash reserves due to careful, intelligent management of the economy, and 60% approval ratings, among the Venezuelan people, on the direction of their country, on the state of their democracy and on the Chavez government. That's what transparent vote counting can do. They have it. We don't. And you wonder why our corpo/fascist press demonizes Chavez? It's because they hate democracy. They really do. And our war profiteers want that oil.)

[dccrossman]

32. Another website covering the story

http://www.darkreading.com/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219200437

Enjoy!

[hunter]

33. "...five voting machines for just $82..."

:rofl:

I love it when my prognostications are correct.

Unless the whole lot of them are sent to the acid pits of developing nations for recycling I'm looking forward to buying a couple for my own personal computer museum. Five for $82 seems a good price.

I'm going to program the machines to ask you to insert your credit card so you can send money to Bev Harris, purchase a Clinton cigar, and put a Republican in office.

As they tally up your vote they'll play a little video of Ann Coulter firing a big automatic weapon topless.

[Zorra]

34. kick for congress to do something about this right now.