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Feds to Open BlackBoxVoting User Logs?
Doc Ruby writes "Investigating a crack of eVoting company VoteHere, the FBI is said to be issuing a subpoena for the traffic logs of journalist Beverly Harris' BlackBoxVoting website. The FBI is pursuing Harris on the theory that her site is the connection between incriminating memos leaked from (VoteHere competitor) Diebold and the intrusion into VoteHere's servers. Are you on the list?"
They can't subpoena something that doesn't exist...if sites with potentially controversial content make a policy of not keeping logs more than 24 hours (or even better, simply write the logs to /dev/null) then there's nothing at all for the FBI, NSA, etc. to subpoena.
I'm surprised they don't do this already.
Actually, if this were a slashdot article eons ago, it probably got slashdotted, and thus have lots of slashketeers on their list. Those that cared to RTFA, anyway...so that drops it down to a handful. :)
Guess here's one of those instances where it pays NOT to RTFA. Like we ever do anyway.
So how would they prosecute this if the blame falls on VoteHere via BlackBoxVoting? Is this something that would be considered industrial espionage and prosecuted under trade secret law? What about BlackBoxVoting being labeled the "middleman" in the leak?
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
For a site about security and privacy, they make a point of displaying in their message boards that the submitting IP address of every post is logged. Well, guess what, the Feds have reason to want to see those logs now.
Apparently a judge somewhere has been shown enough information to think that a search of the site is warranted...
Not judge. Grand Jury.
"Just a bunch of citizens" meeting in secret and nosing into anything a prosecurot thinks might be a sign that a crime might have been committed.
Because their proceedings are (allegedly) secret and the details of their deliberations do NOT become either public record or evidence usable at a trial, claims of privilege and immunity to search do not pull much weight.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Yeah, maybe as little as a year or two ago. Now the site is run by Microsoft Fanboy's as sad I am to say it.
This post will be modded down just for saying it. Any pro linux or anti microsoft sentiment expressed on slashdot anymore is modded down. Any post which reflects negatively on the security of closed source is modded down.
Hell I'm starting to believe that the rumors that Microsoft has bought a chunk of Slashdot are true (90% of the ads on the site are Microsoft AD's, some are even TCO FUD links).
Just a test, try submitting 12 stories about new microsoft vulnerabilities after one has been ran. It's fairly easy to do, dozens of MS vulnerabilities are discovered weekly if you watch cert and other similar sites. Watch as all 12 are rejected.
If you pay attention the ratio of Microsoft Vul's which make the page is about 2 for every open source vul reported. As opposed to the 5 or so it used to be. But if you watch the advisory pages nothing has changed in the number of vulnerabilities reported, there is no lower ratio in reality. Stories are being accepted in such a way that it makes it appear that's the case.
I genuinely believe now that Microsoft is exerting at least some influence on the slashdot staff (maybe using their ad dollars as leverage) and definately believe that Microsoft has plenty of moles in the readership.
That being said, a slashdotting of user creations could put a crimp on them finding who panics, but the rest is there no matter how much slashdotters or other groups think they can change it.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Traditional Republicans yes, but the neo-cons in power are anything but traiditional Republicans. And thanks to them, the USA is a lot closer to fascism than we think:
Fascism: A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
OK, the control is there, the suppression of opposition through terror and censorship is growing, belligerent nationalism is very evident, racism has always been there and now is more prominent in the "war" against terror. The only thing lacking is the true centralization of authority, although the way the President was given a free hand to declare war it's not too far off. We're just one more major attack, followed by a declaration of martial law, away from fascism.
Furthermore, as Mussolini said, fascism should more properly be called corporatism. Corporatism. Ring a bell in today's USA?
She dismisses open source software as a solution to electronic voting because bugs can remain hidden even after many reviews. While this is true, it misses the point that we should assume no system will provide a complete answer and therefore use a combination of source code auditing (best if the code is open), certification and what I believe is the most important: paper ballots that can be re-counted to provide an alternative to the electronic counting.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Lo and behold, looky who is writing for MSN Slate. None other than Slashdot's beloved Jon Katz. Writing the same half-informed stuff, and as always with the misrepresentative tone of having first hand experience with the subject at hand.
That's possible. But if that were the case I'd disagree with them.
n issue/or anything else which will likely have an impact on a large number of computers and the way they are supported, article is submitted I'd sure like to see it.
Throughout the day I don't have time to read slashdot and browse the comments at work (yes I actually have to *work* at work, the nerve of those people). But I certainly load up the page and scan for vulnerability/worm/etc headlines because slashdot is the one place that generally covers all the majors fairly fast (using an open source type method so to speak) which will point me to the individual site covering the issue. Or make me aware of said issue so I can hunt out more information.
For blaster for instance, this was extremely useful, I knew about blaster right away, and although there wasn't a fix out yet when it first hit until about noon that day, because I'd found out that this beast existed on slashdot we didn't spend hours trying to fix these issues before realizing it was a new worm.
The same is true for the linux systems we have out there. Granted I've never had a linux update break anything yet, but the Windows world has me paranoid enough that I haven't set automatic update downloading. And although I update routinely if I hear about a certainly especially critical issue I make it a point to update the systems affected IMMEDIATELY.
Throughout the day I generally have 2 or 3 30second windows in which I can check a site for information about current issues, that means I have time to check ONE site. I imagine alot of people are in this boat.
Either slashdot covers vulnerabilities or it doesn't, either it covers worms or it doesn't. Perhaps not on the main page for every single one... but I have EVERYTHING turned on for what is supposed to come up on my slashdot page, so if a legitimate vulnerability/virus/worm/trojan/spyware/activatio
That said, I think your mistaken though. I still find it suspicious that this started occuring right about the time the volume was seriously cranked up on the Microsoft ads (not when Microsoft ads first started appearing, there used to be some, now almost all the ads are).
Actually, the DOJ has defied Congress when they asked how the DOJ was using their new powers under the Patriot Act. Sure, there are things Congress can do about it especially in the area of funding, but they haven't actually done so.
Also remember that the standards for obtaining a warrant (and presumably a subpoena) have been lowered. What must be done now is just the assertion that the investigation relates to terrorism, something which is defined quite broadly now.
Lastly, how do you defend practices such as rendition? Things are far worse for non-citizens, and there's been at least one case of rendition that's become public; a Canadian citizen who was born in Syria being deported to Syria and tortured.
Excellent point you just made, and if people are really paying attention, the Steve Jackson case is only one of MANY such instances in the "computer crimes" saga.
There's a pretty amazingly large list of computer bulletin board systems that listed "FBI raid/seizure" as their reason for finally going offline - yet no prosecutions were made in the vast majority of these cases. People simply dialed up one day, got a "number has been disconnected" message, and assumed the sysop didn't want to run his/her BBS anymore.
I first realized this when looking over one of the old collections of BBS numbers found on the Internet. (I think this was someplace on the www.bbsdocumentary.com web site, but as I look there right now - I only see lists of BBS names with phone numbers and sysops, but no notes as to why they went offline.)
It seems to me that right before the Internet really went mainstream, the feds were spending an awful lot of time seizing people's BBS hardware and software, with no real motivation other than attempting to break up the "BBS scene".
If it becomes a trend that users get in trouble for visiting specific websites, I could screw over everyone I hate just by lugging my laptop within range of their unprotected wireless network
I think I just had a lightbulb go off in my head. This is how I shall eventually rule the world... eliminating my enemies via paranoid government... muhahahaha!
So the FBI is only after *selected* log info. Trusting the government to excercise restraint is exactly what the founding fathers steeled this nation against. Why on earth would intelligence agencies that have been funded by our representatives to compile massive databases NOT keep all of the information therein? You mean the agency doesn't care what *else* is in the log as long as I didn't do anything wrong? Wake up and smell the erosion of democracy!
I not only visted her website on several occasions but I also purchased a copy of her book. It is titled "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century." I look forward to reading it soon. I also once listen to her when she appeared on on a radio talk show. I even went so far as to write to my elected representatives on this subject. Does that mean that I will soon be on the FBI's long list of suspects?
I first started following what she and others had to say when the Swathmore College sudents launched their electronic civil disobedience campaign against Diebold. The students were trying to bring attention to internal Diebold memos which showed that Diebold employees knew how insecure their voting machines and the software was. The students were fighting Diebold's cease-and-desist letters that were forcing websites to take down the memos. For a few hours at a time websites would appear with the information and then the would quickly be shut down and dissappear. The websites not only had the internal Diebold memos but some even had the actual GEMS software and sample voting data files to play with.
The webpages included instructions on how to intall the software on your Windows computer and then use Microsoft Access to easily bypass the all security features. As I recall, it also explained how to modify the "AuditLog" and bypass the audit trail. Keep in mind that the internal memos showed that Diebold knew about most of those problems and did not seem to want to bother fixing the security flaws. Many polling places are now using Diebold voting machines here in the United States.
I did not downlaod the GEMS election software and the memos from the websites. The files would have been to large to be downloaded with my slow dial-up connecton. But, I am sure that many people around the world did. I have not kept up with what is going on lately but apparently the FBI claims to be investigating an alleged break-in at the VoteHere electronic voting software company. The FBI also seem to still be interested in the Diebold memos.
What Bev Harris and others want is for us to use voting machines that print out a stub which can be inserted into the ballot box as a backup in case a recount is needed. Machines of that type exist now but for some reason there has been less of a push for using them. Correct me if I am wrong but, I have heard that several of the voting machine companies have several lobbyists busy in Washington and have made a number of political contributions. Perhaps the main problem is that Bev Harris is trying to bring all that to everyone's attention. She and others are guilty of trying to protectly the integrity of the voting process here in the USA.
I don't usually curse in my /. posts, but that is just fucking priceless.
Reminds me of the justice department investigation (and criminal proceedings against) Greenpeace.
Greenpeace found a ship that was bringing illegal timber from the Amazonian rainforests. So they sent a couple guys to put up a banner on the ship, that said something like "Stop illegal logging now".
So they got caught the Justice department is using a "sailor mongering" law over 100 years old to prosecute **the entire Greenpeace organization**, not just the two chaps who trespassed on the boat. The law was intended to stop prostitutes and bookies and other "low moral characters" from getting on boats at sea.
Never mind the illegal loggers. The justice department is not investigating them, nor suing them, nor prosecuting them. Just the whistleblowers.
Let's get behind Beverly! I for one will be donating money asap!
WWJD? JWRTFA!
That matches up with just about everything I have heard about the "protections" offered by the Grand Jury system.
sPh
Nothing makes me madder than discovering that along the way, one of my teachers drilled the wrong thing into me.
Amen. I, myself, was terribly confused when my teacher insisted that there were seven colors in the spectrum (ye olde ROY G BIV) when I could only see six (ROY G BV).
I looked for indigo for years, and just couldn't find it. It was only much later that I learned that Newton had felt the need for the spectrum to have seven colors, and so had made one up.
As a sidenote, I wonder if I can moderate myself "Offtopic."
So because we allowed our government to make a huge fsck up in the past, we have to allow it in the present and future?
I seem to remember that the vast majority of US Citizens think the internment camps of WWII were and are bad ideas.
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society - M. Twain
Umm... your point being? Indefinite detention of non-soldiers was DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL during the Civil War. Although the WW2 internment camps were allowed to stand at the time, they were officially designated a "great injustice" in hindsight.
Sooner or later, the same will be said of our abuses in the War on Freedom^H^H^HTerror. The only question is whether the denunciation will be accompanied by applause or explosions.Technically more like 120. The first anti-narcotics ordinance was against opium parlors in San Francisco shortly after the civil war.
I for one can't see why anyone would think declaring war on some social problem can possibly be a good idea. I mean, war is all about killing your enemy to achieve some goal. While the implementation has been atrocious, having a War on Terrorist is actually logical, if rather redundant, since terrorists are by definition already in a state of war against you. But a War on Drugs? Who's the enemy? Are we actually declaring war on chemicals? Or instead on dealers and manufacturers? In which case wouldn't users then be 'traitors' and subject to execution?
Dyolf Knip
The US Constitution specifies a peaceful "overthrow" of the government every two years:
Actually, the ability to amend the Constitution is better as a proxy for government overthrow- as that's the only approved way to cause changes similar in scope to what happen in a revolutionary war. The executive and legislative branches just don't have that degree of power.