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The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency
The book chronicles the final week before security expert Professor Chad Davis is to testify before Congress on the security of a commercial e-voting software product made by a fictitious company, Advice Software, Inc.
Davis' testimony will ultimately determine if the software will be implemented for use during the United States' 2004 presidential election, and therefore create a huge windfall for the company. The company will do anything and everything it can to ensure that Davis provides positive testimony. Advice will stop at nothing to complete their mission; that means they'll engage in multiple murders, kidnapping and a slew of other nefarious activities. All of this is addition to simultaneously attempting to corner the video chip market, and create video drivers that send subliminal messages about which candidate to vote for.
As Albert Einstein said, "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." The plot could have been made much simpler to mimic reality and the current state of insecure e-voting systems. As in real life, the e-voting companies are getting away with providing insecure e-voting systems; under the nose of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and an unsuspecting and apathetic voting public. The idea that an e-voting software company would resort to murder is where the book demonstrates it is a novel.
The reason e-voting companies and their insecure software can run roughshod through the FEC is that voting-system flaws do not have the same immediate tragic consequences that other product failures can. Plane crashes and adverse drug effects spur the FAA and FDA to take drastic actions and often overreact to an event; poorly written and insecure voting software is clearly not as newsworthy as a burning jet.
Combine this with a public that is utterly apathetic to voting in general and the situation is ripe for the situation where e-voting can have a near hypnotic effect on most people involved. Because voter turnout for U.S. presidential elections is quite low (60% of eligible voters cast their ballots in the November 2000 presidential election), and most people are completely unaware of the dangers of insecure voting applications, an under-funded federal agency can be manipulated by the e-voting vendors to roll out insecure voting software.
The international intrigue of the novel takes the reader to the RSA security conference in Amsterdam, where Davis is given a cryptic CD-ROM by Baff Lexicon, a notorious international hacker. Lexicon suggests there is serious problems with the software and will brief Davis at midnight that night at the Amsterdam Hard Rock Cafe on the details. Unfortunately, Lexicon is being trailed by undercover agents from Advice, and is murdered a few hours later by a Yugoslavian hit man that the company seems to have on retainer.
Davis now has the difficult job of unlocking the cryptic information on the CD-ROM on his own. That same CD-ROM is included with the book, and the reader is invited to join Davis in attempting to decrypt the contents of the CD and the conspiracy that Advice Software is attempting to perpetrate; namely the outcome of the 2004 election.
(If you are not interested in buying the book, anyone can download the software without having to buy the book. The software is actually part of a contest and the winner will receive a free pass to the BlackHat 2005 conference.)
A good section of the novel then details how Davis attempts to decipher the secrets that Baff Lexicon was attempting to convey to him. The two authors of The Mezonic Agenda have, respectively, a PhD in applied mathematics and a Master's in chemical engineering, and write in a someone choppy style representative of their technical backgrounds. Occasional errors in grammar and spelling are excused, save for the egregious misspelling of Learjet on page 154.
The story concludes with a moral dilemma that Davis faces: with his wife and daughter kidnapped by the Advice Software hit man, does he provide favorable, yet dishonest testimony about the software and watch his family set free; or tell the truth and watch them die?
The novel itself takes up 240 of the books 370 pages, with the last five parts dedicated to a history of voting, reverse engineering, cryptography, buffer overflows and steganography.
As a standalone novel, the book (while entertaining and enjoyably readable) is somewhat overpriced at $34.95, especially since the enclosed CD-ROM is freely downloadable and the plot is somewhat thin. The non-fiction final section, though, is quite informative and effectively complements the novel.
This novel does a good job of explaining how software can be cracked, and provides the reader with a good overview of security concepts such as buffer overflows, reverse engineering, cryptography, and more. It is hoped that the book will find itself in the hands of members of Congress and the FEC, who truly need to be educated in such fundamental security topics.
As a novel, The Mezonic Agenda will not compete with books from Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum. But because insecure e-voting is one of the greatest threats to democracy today, it is a much needed title.
You can purchase The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
In other words, "choose-your-own-adventure". It doesn't sound so impressive without the big words, does it?
Socialism: A feeling of discontent and resentment caused by a desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
Anyone think this was about Diebold?
See all of the other books that Ben advertises/reviews here.
Zero Day Exploit along the same lines. Also the "Hacking The Network" (here and here) series as well. Geeks make great authors, and when they write geeky stories, it's just the best of both worlds.
Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
... a certain melodrama and fantasy element... Ha! As if the NYT's bias isn't filled with such!!
"The best laid plans of mice and men gang oft agley..." - ROBERT BURNS
I'll wait till I've finished reading all the good books before I start on the second string. I only have a few thousand of those good ones to go.
See what I've been reading.
When my brain first saw "Mezonic" it couldn't decide if it was some weird reference to the Mesozoic era or something to do with the Masons. What the heck is "Mezonic"?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
include $sig;
1;
That being the case, novels are written, to briefly take such men, out of that quiet desperation, even for a short while.
From the looks of things, a lot of these novels could be shortened to novellas if all of those extra commas were eliminated.
Dull pulp to boot. Really, for a "positive" review, it makes the book sound awful. I presume that's because it is awful, awful beyond the powers of mere mortal reviewers to rescue...
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
The problem with "real world" fiction such as this is that most people will either:
a) miss the point entirely (in this case that there is more to e-voting than pressing a button);
b) think "Way Off - can't happen here" (even when it has!);
c) ignore the book.
Maybe the way to do it is be more subtle (like Terry Pratchett, who wraps his attacks on society up in metaphor and allegory), or more gung-ho (like Dan Brown)
"She's furniture with a pulse"
Sounds just like Slashdot....
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
Considerhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/159 4030618/102-2587016-4696960>Stealing elections
In "Stealing Elections," John Fund takes the reader on a national tour of voter fraud scandals ranging from rural states like Texas and Mississippi to big cities such as Philadelphia and Milwaukee. He explores dark episodes such as the way "vote brokers" stole a mayoral election in Miami in 1998 by tampering with 4700 absentee ballots. He shows how, in the aftermath of the Motor Voter Law of 1993, Californians used mail-in forms to get absentee ballots for fictitious people and pets, while in St. Louis it was discovered that voter rolls included 13,000 more names than the U.S. Census listed as the total number of adults in the city.
Election officials are trying to reassure voters by turning to computerized voting machines. But Fund shows that with the new technology come even greater concerns. Early in 2004, for instance, the state of Maryland, which has 16,000 new Diebold machines, commissioned a security expert to try to rig a practice election. He and his team broke into the computer at the State Board of Elections, completely changed the outcome of the election, left, and erased their electronic trail--all in under five minutes.
"Stealing Elections" gives us a chilling portrait of our electoral vulnerability--in the 2004 presidential election and on into the future. Writing with urgency and authority, John Fund shows how a lethal combination of bureaucratic bungling and ballot rigging have put our democracy at risk.
Ah, crud.
Stealing elections
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
At one time I was a programmer working for the real life equivalant and I was horrified by the apathy the senior managment had for the software's security. All they cared about was having the software ready to sell by the time of the election, not having a fair election.
I spoke up and after rocking the boat to no avail (I even recieved not-so-subtle hints of losing my job). So I wrote a letter to the chairman of the FEC and my state senator and I was granted a hearing by the FEC where I was to be given the chance to present my case.
That was when they had a hitman show up at my house. Appearing like a trenchcoat wearing deamon he calmy walked up to my front stoop and kicked the door in. My doberman pincher tried to fight off the intruder but poor Billy got his head blown off by the Spas-12 shotgun the assasin carried. I was upstairs posting on Slashdot when I heard the noise and ran to the top of my stairs only to see Death empty three rounds of double odd buck into my belly.
I was dead before I hit the floor.
They took my body and dumped it out in Cheasapeake bay with old fashiond cement shoes and there I remain till this day.
>
Albert Einstein never said, "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." Even though it is attributed to him zillions of times on the Internet (and sometimes even in print), there is never a source provided for this attribution. It is one of those myths that never seems to die, like Bill Gates' supposedly saying "640K ought to be enough for anybody."
I have not read the book, but what's above seems to be a synopsis of the entire plot. Shouldn't there have been some kind of spoiler warning? I'm not one of those people who consider the divulging of everything but the resolution of the final cliffhanger to be a non-spoiler.
Uhh.. does this sound like a rip-off of the Da Vinci code's plot or what?
Heh. I ran into one of the downmods in that thread when metamodding today and immediately thought of the same thing: that some idiot is bound to metamod these negative moderations unfair (FWIW, i didn't). I guess you should have thought about it before and used over/underrated only...
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novels are written, to briefly take such men, out of that quiet desperation, even for a short while. Novels therefore require a certain melodrama and fantasy element
Well, some novels, maybe. I've heard it said that there used to be a habit in the 19th and 20th centuries to write novels in order to provide knowledge or moral teachings to the reader.
However, I can't find either of those topics in wikipedia, so maybe not...
it's a story about a flawed voting system and the lead character's named 'chad' ...
Utter rubbish. There are many many novels of extra-ordinary importance that have nothing to do with fantasy or melodrama. The parent is describing a certain middle to low brow sense of literature. People write and read stories for a multitude of reasons, and to say that books missing the aforementioned elements equate with reading the newspaper, just goes to show the parent's reduced sense of human existence and imagination as to what literature can be and do.
Also, the book he describes sounds terrible. I'll wait for the movie to come out and snag a torrent of it in a few years.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
"[...] and write in a someone choppy style representative of their technical backgrounds."
That was pretty choppy.
"[...]the situation is ripe for the situation where e-voting[...]"
That's pretty choppy too. Hey, are you a computer geek?
you had me at #!
I got this book at barnes and noble and finished reading it yesterday. I thought the plot was pretty cool but the hack-along stuff was awesome. This reviewer though sounds like he wants to be a poet more than a techie book reviewer...
I also enjoyed Stealing the Continent (and STN) for the way they blend fictional plots with accurate hacking techniques. I particularly enjoyed Fyodor's (Nmap author) stand-alone chapter, which is available online
I heard about this book at blackhat and then bought one on Amazon. I don't know what this reviewer is smoking but this book is really good, much better put together than the "stealing the network" books (that I also enjoyed). My recommendation: buy it, download the software (instead of opening the CD) and if you don't like it return it :) (God bless Barnes and Noble)...
As opposed to Kerry, who blatantly produced a crib sheet and pen from his pocket at the debate - a clear violation of the rules.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Without doubt Thoreau's comment deserves serious consideration; it has been argued that people watch soap operas and follow favorite sports teams because everyday life lacks a certain sense of narrative; however, to imply that the news is not (significantly) dramatic is quite a commentary on life in general . . .
Regardless of your political leanings, if WMD suspicions, presentations at the UN, North Korean nuclear brinksmanship, war in Iraq, Manipulations of the truth arguably by those for and against war, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, forged documents of a president's military record, and terrorist events in Paris, Madrid, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and NY City are not dramatic enough for the reviewer, then perhaps the reviewer should be checked to see if he still has a pulse. If there was a choice between a "Choose you own Adventure" book and the real world, I would choose the real world.
I can only guess that the reviewer is either looking to sensationalize his piece with a quote and a small piece of flamebait or perhaps he is one of those that cannot appreciate or perhaps understand the complicated drama that unfolds in the news that affects our daily lives.
As Henry David Thoreau observed 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.'
And Pink Floyd said "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way."
Well, hmm... I thought I'd something more to say...
Look I don't buy shit from Abercrombie and Fitch and I go out of my way to avoid Starbucks. I am not a big fan of some companies and tend to vote that way with my dollar if nothing else. However, this stuff really gets boring, really fast. If I read one more book about a fucking evil company that runs around killing people or trying to take over the world, I am going to go sit my ass down at Starbucks and order a something-or-another-latte. No more corporate conspiracies, no more 'megacorps'.
And for the love OF FUCKING GOD, NEVER - EVER - EVER! name the evil company in your story 'OmniCorp'. For fucks sake, everyone has read that book already. We all know if that OmniCorp is evil. Science fiction is falling down the gutter these days. Jesus, I know everyone is terrified McDonalds is going to make them eat a pile of greasy fries at gun point, but could we tone it down a little?
One fo the authors of this book was in the news on Wired and a couple of TV programs because he found a real vulnerability in Diebold's e-voting software (not that it's probably hard to do). Is this REALLY a novel or a prediction for November?
Bought this last week. The story part reads as pretty bad fiction. Maybe I'm just used to reading Tom Clancy... some of the technical info is good, but there are a few gaps in the information present. There was one part in the story where I was totally lost.
As for the "hack along with the story" part, you can just download the zip and hack away. The back story helps a bit, but I had already cracked the thing a few weeks ago.
*looks around shifty eyed*
s/\sOmni/ Mega/g
*submits to editor*
The book is cool...not Clancy, but cool none the less. The story is a classic thriller with some cool technology thrown in. It's worth the $23 I paid for it.
Congratulations to this wonderful author for not only publishing the first book ever to be written entirely in l33t speak but also for doing it on a d34d operating system, Gentoo. Congratulations to all of the Gentoo developers and users out there, all seven of you. The last gasp of Gentoo has now been captured on the printed page.
shameless Anarchy Online props..
All your base are belong to Google.
I would like one, please aaron at netadvantage dot com
This is where participants in international intrigue are meeting these days to exchange secrets: exotic locales like the Hard Rock Cafe?
I miss the Cold War...
Read my blog.
I'm being a dick and I have 6 foes. Garcia has, what, 60?
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
As shortly following the famous quote "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" comes "A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things."
Thoreau deplored modern society. He was passionate about learning and thought that a man should spend all of his being trying to learn as much as possible about everything. He would roll over in his grave if he knew people used his writings to re-enforce fiction--Thoreau had absolutely no time for fiction or any other kinds of "games or amusements".
Quotes are dangerous things. Don't use them unless you are absolutely positive that you know exactly what point the author was trying to convey.
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
The idea that an e-voting software company would resort to murder is where the book demonstrates it is a novel.
Because no-one has ever been murdered for capital gain, no-sir!
What horrible English!
Addendum:
Using expressions such as 'save for' does not necessarily make you a good writer. It _does_ make you look a bit full of yourself, though...
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
Well if you enjoy 10 minute crafted blather in karma whoring goodness, followed by a 2-to-1 ratio of 'Why do peole mod me this way", you should check out Sir Haxalot and other fine dumbasses.
You're not new here, are you? :)
By "along the same lines," I assume you mean they're published by the same publisher and are part of the same series of novels, each written by a committee of several writers and repackaged to look like computer books to make it easier for IT managers to expense them?
And as far as geeks making great authors, I can't vouch for the technical accuracy of any of these books because I haven't read them. But if by "author" you mean "novelist," it only took looking through a few pages of one of them for me to say (in the spirit of the political theme of "The Mezonic Agenda"):
"I know authors. Some authors are friends of mine. And you're no author(s)."
Sometimes it's about style, too. Clancy's not the best example, (not that he's not a fun read,) but If the New York Times really worked on their cadences, maybe churned it out in iambic pentameter... =) > if the novels lacked such exaggerated drama, it would suffice to read the New York Times, and not Tom Clancy.
I see the Friends of Bill are moderating. Oh, well. :)
There seems to be a clue in the readme included with the software. To save everyone the trouble of looking it up, it's from Habakkuk 2:3 in the KJV.
And the brethren went away edified.
I'm stuck on hacking the software after I get past the first encryption. How do you decrypt the second file in there (encrypted2.dat). PS "Why don't you just buy the book you cheap bastard" wouldn't be a helpful answer...
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The book's websitehas a video of a monkey "hacking" e-voting software. It must've been seen by Bill Amend, creator of the comic Fox Trot, as seen in his recent strip.
Thanks for telling me about haxalot. I've never seen so many -1's. I laughed my ass off especially because of his latest comment. Lol :) But I have to say, garcia usually has a point, and gets knocked for expressing an actual opinion, as compared to haxalot, who just seems to exist for trolling and flaming. Although looking at Haxalot's -1's made me laugh, I think I'd rather cast my lot with garcia. He's cool.
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
I think I'm addicted to reading troll posts... (don't worry I won't write any). That is some funny shit.
with Bev Harris, Jeremiah Akin, and Andy Stephenson at the National Press Club on September 22, 2004.
gewg_
I'm being a dick and I have 6 foes. Garcia has, what, 60?
You don't have 9 of 13 posts at +5. You also don't have 3x as many Fans as Foes. He does. When someone is posting at +5 that often their viewpoints are more prevelant to those reading Slashdot.
(Page 46, emphasis mine.)
Apart from being a godawful metaphor - which I re-read several times in a vain attempt to figure out exactly what was being compared here (The car "idled like the stallions of old"? Do stallions idle? And if they did, how exactly would that keep knights warm?) basic misspellings like "shinning armor" don't exactly do a lot to help with the ol' suspension of disbelief.
But my main annoyance so far has to be a repeated story device in which the main character "realizes" that an Interpol agent who interviewed him at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport must have been a bad guy:
Well, that's right, sparky. Here's a newsflash: Amsterdam isn't a member country of Interpol, because Amsterdam isn't a country. It's a city. And the country it's in most certainly is a member country of Interpol; Netherlands has been in Interpol since the 1920's.
So it's fairly obvious the author's Ph.D isn't in geography. Haven't these guys heard of Google?
And no, it's not a throwaway line. It's a plot point. This blunder is repeated when the hero is talking to his best friend, FBI Agent "Hans":
Their jobs, presumably.
The characters are paper-thin and unpleasant; perhaps one should inform the writers that you're meant to like the hero, not think he's an ass. Personally I find it hard to root for a character who's inner character is revealed by such prose as:
This is our great hero and protagonist? Then why does it sound like petulant schoolyard bitching from a rebuffed fourteen year old with self-esteem issues?
And to add insult to injury, this thing's $35. If you're wanting to read a page-turner on security, just pick up a Bruce Schneier book instead, and use the leftover money to grab yourself a latte and a decent novel.
Democracy is a fragile institution. Let's face it: The upcoming 2004 election will be hackable to unethical persons with considerable technical and financial resources. (Hint: Think of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth)
Thanks in part to relentless media consolidation, the US public is unaware or more apathetic than ever to this important issue.
The best way to counter this? Forget this Rock the Vote nonsense. Like we really need more people unaware of the issues casting random votes. How about a campaign to tell people:
'Don't bother Voting because it won't matter'.
When people see a message like that, they get ANGRY. That anger will lead to measures to sort this mess out...hopefully.
thought it was gonna be a howto guide...
All the torrents you could want.
But there are novels that are written precisely to read like the New York Times. Admittedly, I could get what you mean by "novel" from your choice of Clancy as an example of a novelist. But not all novels are written to be read on lazy Saturday mornings.Some are written for such serious purposes as winning the Nobel Prize.
Thank God for that. Clancy is an over-the-hill fart who writes books the size, weight and clarity of bricks. Ludlum wrote ridiculous conspiracy-theory novels almost as fat. I regret every minute of my life they've wasted (in moments of weakness, on vactation, I did pick up and read some of these). Like Macdonald's, the aroma is enticing, the anticipation is acute, the after-taste is regret at what you've done to your body (mind).
As interesting as the e-voting scandal is, I've been convinced that the US government has been hacked for years. People whose main goals in life are money and power tend to gravitate naturally toward positions of authority. They figure out how systems really work as opposed to how they are supposed to work. In our political system, people with a lot of money compete with each other to get politicians elected and influence their actions. Every president since Harry Truman has been the candidate with the most campaign money. Al Gore came close to breaking the pattern, but no cigar. Democracy in America works very well for the people who are rich enough to participate in it.
When I first came to the "Books" section of Slashdot I expected at the very least to see something, anything at all above the high school reading level. Instead, I find a trash heap of poorly written "techo thriller choose your own adventures" and nerds who somehow, against all odds, got their books on open source or some other asinine computer oddity published. If Charles Dickens was still alive to day, he would take his own life out of shock and grief.
ALLAHCANBESEEN
All are sent out to those above - sorry for the delay.
"As the intrepid kobold companion continues his journey, he begins to wonder... if priests raises dead, why anybody die?
Thanks for proving my point exactly.
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?