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Dutch Securing E-voting After Being Pwned
An anonymous reader writes, "After the Dutch we-don't-trust-voting-computers foundation demonstrated glaring security holes in Dutch voting computers last week, the Dutch government has ordered (Dutch) all software to be replaced, all hardware to be checked, unflashable firmware to be installed, and an iron seal to be placed on voting machines. A certification institute will double-check all measures, and on election day will cull random machines to check them for accuracy. The Dutch intelligence service AIVD has been approached to consult on the radio emissions issue. Furthermore, foreign observers will monitor the upcoming elections on November 22nd. But the action group is still not confident (Dutch) that all problems are solved." US elections are controlled at the local level, so unfortunately such a nationwide fix would not be workable here.
I assume they are referring to TEMPEST attacks. It was a Dutchman, Vim van Eck who first brought TEMPEST attacks to public attention while in the U.S. even the security standard was classified. I imagine many Slashdot readers will recognize his name from the "Van Eck phreaking" described in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon .
Oh, don't worry, I have it on good authority that the elections will be fixed here.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
What is "pwned"?
.. something that shouldn't belong in a slashdot headline..
- Leon Mergen
http://www.solatis.com
They do all of these things, and yet still do not create a paper trail of each vote?
It appears that the machines only create a paper copy of the results at the end of the day...
Arguments for local control of voting regulations.
(posting as AC to save my devil's advocate ass)
1 - The United States Of America was designed as a confederation of (mostly) independent states. Only the powers explicitly given to the federal government are not the jurisdiction of the states.
2 - The innovative power of the open market. The belief that by allowing a competition of ideas in how best to run elections (as long as they meet minimal standards) the best choice will be eventually reached.
3 - Local boards of elections consist of an equal number of members of both parties. The belief is that Democrats won't allow Republicans to steal the election, and vise versa.
Why the hell wouldn't it be? Sure it would cost more and probably be harder to setup than in holland since there is more territory and a much higher population count, but not workable? We're talking democracy at stake here, I don't see much that you could want to "fix" more than the risk of losing your voice, of making your votes irrelevant and inexistant, or being cheated out of choosing your leaders and the way your country will behave in the future.
Of course, some people may be more interested in there being a high risk of electronic electoral fraud, if they're committing or benefiting from the fraud in the first place...
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Paper is neither inefficient, or backward. It's the only way to conduct an open and accurate election on a nation wide scale, without introducing unacceptable doubt into the legitimacy of the winner(s). Florida's paper chad system was a failure because machines more complicated than pencils, and obscuring of the working of the ballot was placed between the voter and the ballot. The result was a flawed result, and a delayed result, many times longer than the longest recent Canadian federal general elections.
Oh You POS
US elections are controlled at the local level, so unfortunately such a nationwide fix would not be workable here.
Sure it would. Powers reserved for the states have been nationalized over and over again by the simple application of cash: The federal government offers funding for a particular project but you have to follow the federal rules to get it. The federal rules are rarely too onorous and the money you don't have to collect in local taxes is too much to turn down when the neighboring states all take it.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Using your monitor as a AM transmitter. This little program is a real eye opener for those who still thinks that TEMPEST attacks are something you just see in the movies.
Doolittle :
Bomb no.20 : To explode of course.
"US elections are controlled at the local level, so unfortunately such a nationwide fix would not be workable here."
Um, as an American currently living in Switzerland, I have to ask... do you know how big the Netherlands are (is? that's a tricky one)? Smaller than Chicago, if I remember correctly... so being applied at the national level there is essentially the same as the local level in the US.
"Pwned" has been showing up constantly recently, and it's always kdawson.
What Slashdot need to remember is that their headlines show up in a variety of professional places (by rss) - Google news for one, and having words such as "pwned" looks beyond amateurish.
How about the next story being "Slashdot editors pwned with a dictionary, improvements expected all round"?
Remember that these electronic voting machines were designed and build in the eighties of the last century, and have been used ever since.
What Microsoft does in an xbox360 is not relevant to what a small engineering company would have done over 20 years ago.
You could call it the disadvantage of an early rollout of modern technology.
On the other hand, you can also claim that the current hardware can be understood by a causal onlooker with electronics and software background.
It contains only off-the-shelf parts and the protest group was able to disassemble and analyze it (as well as port a chess program to the hardware) in a months time.
Try that with an Xbox.
We have various methods to keep both sides honest here in Quebec.
We tried electronic voting machines for one election, and quickly abandoned them - it was actually quicker, as well as being more transparent, to process ballots by hand, and there were no problems with power, questionable software, etc.
Still, there are those who want to go back to using pine cones and beaver chips instead of a paper ballot.
I guess you were part of the 3% of the population that voted against electronic voting and not part of the 203% that support it.*
*numbers calculated by diebold voting machines.
Badass Resumes
"In a bay in California they found several ballot boxes....."
Because they used paper, there was something to find.
"In my state of WV they are still prosecuting people for vote buying and ballot box stuffing."
Because they used paper, and there was something which could be found.
US elections are controlled at the local level, so unfortunately such a nationwide fix would not be workable here.
Hmmm, the Dutch aren't exactly Botswana or some place in South America where votes might be escorted by military convoys. Yet, the Dutch will have FOREIGN observers?
Wow. Considering all the diebold bullshit going on, one would think and ask where are the INTERNATIONAL observers when US voting (local, county, state, federal) elections occur.
I think the UN should declare an occupation to several major US cities. Make things interesting a bit....
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"