BBV question...does it work like this? Today at work.....my IT person

[Gin]

fixed a problem remotely..we have a LAN...she asked the name of my computer..from properties in My Computer....and was able to close the files I was working on...log in..log out..reboot..install files...read and delete emails from the previous person...and while I was watching my curser move by remote control..all I could think of was...this is how they do it....they know the info on every computer they place at the polls.....and there is a network...over which they have control...to change whatever...whenever...and nobody would know.

Am I correct in this? it all seemed so simple...and I have used computers for years...but never experienced this remote situation where my computer was being operated by another while I watched what was going on. It was surreal!.

[Broken Acorn]

1. YES

VPN, Remote Desktop Connection, etc. are all now easily accessible ways to access each State's centralized server and change the votes before they are published or updated.

Welcome to the Stolen Election of 2004!

[Gin]

3. it was an Ah-Ha moment...and sickening too.

g

[Turn CO Blue]

2. Sure, it's just one of MANY ways unfortunately. We have VNC

at work (some function as you mention) and the IT department already has a list of everyone's computer name or IP address on the WAN.

[leftchick]

4. very similar....

I believe it is the upload to the GEMS (highly hackable) central server that is at issue. It is wide open to hacking and the vendors know it and for some very strange reason... :eyes:
Did not bother to heed the warnings to address the security issues.
Perhaps it may have been because they belong to the other team?? :shrug:

[dweller]

5. on a lighter note...

i once worked in a major university computer lab for students. The sysadmin could access any computer remotely (as you described above) but always would call and make sure the machine was open for whatever they needed to do. So, got a call about a certain machine, i went and checked (in another room) and let him know it was free. Hung up and went to turn off the monitor (we normally put a sign on it also, the students would turn the monitor back on and work anyway if not).
By the time i got back, a young woman had sat down and attempted to check her email/web, and was in a fight with the sysadmin over the mouse. She'd attempted to open and login, and he'd close and or erase her login...she'd try again, he'd remotely move the mouse elsewhere. By the time i got to her she was fuming. I asked to take a different computer and she spit out "This machine is possessed!!"

called back the sysadmin to apologize and he was laughing his ass off.


but yeah, they can do it all remotely.

dp

[anamandujano]

8. I wonder if this is what was happening

when people touched the screen for Kerry and it registered for Bush. I've read stories here of people trying several times, voting Kerry and having it register Bush. Maybe the hacking was going on simultaneously and it was a so-called "fight for the mouse". Just asking.

[dweller]

9. not necessary

that's just simple programming to make a selection different than you wanted..
hell, the code could take a vote for Kerry, make it read like a vote for Kerry, and still count *moron.


dp

[billyoc]

6. Your office workstation is probably MUCH more secure

than the voting machines where. :grr:

[leftchick]

7. kick

:kick:

[KTM]

10. Nah

No need for something like VNC or pcAW.. those are GUI-based remote support tools, used when you need to see what the user on the other end is seeing. Their primary purpose is not only to allow the remote tech full access, but more importantly to allow them to poke around and see things, as if they were there.

To hack an election, you dont need to see individual PCs.. you just need, as someone above said, to alter the code such that the machine counts differently then it is displaying - without a paper trail, or ability to look at the underlying code, nobody is the wiser.

There a ton of ways to remotely access a PC.. what you saw today was the least sneaky/invasive. When I work on machines, maybe I will launch Comp Manageent or Regisrty Editor on my PC and remotely change settings on another that way.. or telnet in and apply a patch from a command line... or connect to an admin share (full access to entire HD, by default) and add/delete/change files. You never know. I do it every day, and my users dont know unless I need them to know.

An IT dept may also install stealty monitoring software that records periodic snapshots of your screen, or monitors all messages for specific content, or records keystrokes.. you'll never know. We can also monitor all network traffic, get way geeky and intercept net traffic at the packet level while it passes along our network.

Were you put off by what you saw ? Well, be afraid then.. what you saw was the equivalent of an announced search, with you present, with everything done in such a way that you could see it... like the cops with a warrant, maybe even your lawyer present.. what we can do is more like the sneak & peek searches Ashcroft was fond of.. the kind that are initiated in secret, that you never know happened.