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Diebold Security Foiled Again
XenoPhage writes "Yet again, Diebold has shown their security prowess. This time they posted, on their website, a picture of the actual key used to open all of their Diebold voting machines. Ross Kinard of Sploitcast crafted three keys based on this photo. Amazingly enough, two of the three keys successfully opened one of the voting machines. But fear not, Diebold has removed the offending picture, replacing it with a picture of their digital card key. Take that, hackers!"
How can these guys still be in business? It seems like every couple weeks for the past 3 or 4 years I have been hearing about them screwing shit up, over and over and over and over again. Any other company would have been history long ago. What's with Diebold? Why don't they die?
To Boldy die where no security has died before!
Apparently they're not very good at that, either.
The way to get rid of election controversies is to have a national election commission like in India. India has a lot more voters than the US and a much lower level of education but it manages to pull off general elections a lot more cleanly and fairly just because the standards are same for all elections and all precincts. The decentralized form of elections might have made sense for the age of horse coaches but in the age of internet it is not too tough to have thge same standards everywhere in the US
.With a paper backup all fraud can be caught given enough time for recounts (again if elections are not controlled by local partisan officials they cant arbitrarily decide not to have recounts).
Also why not have a paper trail
**Life is too short to be serious**
I don't reply to Anonymous posts; if you have something to say to me, identify yourself or I won't reply.
Hey, at least we know they're not relying on security through obscurity!
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
Do they even have any security-minded people working at this company? Publishing a picture of a real key is an understandable mistake, but why does the same key open every single voting machine?
http://outcampaign.org/
As long as it's a normal lock, like 90+% of the locks out there (likely including your own front door), then Lock bumping is going to allow just about any person, regardless of skill, to defeat the lock using extremely simple tools, in a matter of seconds, likely with no signs of intrusion at all.
Ryan Fenton
Our hero copied the smartcard from their photo on the website and keyed in the password 12345, the master password that unlocks all diebold machines.
... is the fact that Diebold also manufacturs ATMs. Makes me wonder if my bank account is safe...
Funny how you only seem to be responding to the average media coverage and not the facts. Was no one interested or was the media (even non-mainstream) not interested? Plenty of investigations occurred. You apparently just didn't hear about them.
Developers: We can use your help.
It's because the exit polling was a much closer match to the actual results, rather than having substantial irregularities or, as in the case of the 2004 election, actual instances of election fraud.
Having both sides being extremely skeptical of the computer returned election counts is the only thing keeping anyone honest.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Using this picture as a base, I have crafted three digital card keys...
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Yes. From the article:
" ... and beyond that, it could be opened with the same keys typically used with hotel minibars and jukeboxes."
Why are people ignoring what is going on in Florida House District 13?
The Rebublicans are claiming a 369 vote victory. However the EVMs in Sarasota county, reported an undervote of 18,000. or 1 in 6 of the total votes, which is much higher than the undervote in both the other counties and on average. Sarasota County also happened to be where the Democrat challenger won the vote by 6 percentage points (of the votes cast in that county).
There are some obviously severe issues with Electronic Voting, Particularly when there is no paper trail (as in the case for this district). Sure, there are ways to change the vote on a paper verification ballot, however large scale fraud becomes problematic to implement.
Links Below:n ?CATEGORY=NEWS0521&template=ovr2 e ssional_district h p?id=6423 i nterview_chris_1.html
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/sectio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida's_13th_congr
http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.p
http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/12/the_cqpolitics_
"The bass, the rock, the mic, the treble. I like my coffee black, just like my metal" - Mindless Self Indulgence
Perhaps you can explain why Maryland's previous Republican governor Robert Ehrlich fought against the Diebold machines tooth and nail, even asking for millions of dollars instead to support a traditional election process, only to have them rammed down his throat by the (Democratic) MD legislature and state board of elections? Our state elections administrator, Democrat Linda H. Lamone is still fighting their removal and even against adding a paper trail! Hell, she doesn't even want printers because she says adding printers to the existing equipment "would disrupt the voting system."
If you think the Republicans are the only ones who want to use Diebold machines to manipulate votes, you're an idiot.
Voting machines should not be relying on physical security in the first place, because it is not practical to physically protect them 24/365. Their trustworthiness should be the result of double-handshake cryptographic authentications between the touchscreens, consoles, memory cards, and the central tabulator. Being able to open the cabinet should not be a vulnerability, because poll workers are invariably going to need to do so.
So, if Diebold machines implement proper authentication, then the cabinet key is not an interesting exposure. But if they don't (and we already know that they don't), then the cabinet key doesn't make them significantly more vulnerable than they already are.
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
A picture is worth a thousand votes.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Based on Diebold's actions in this area I think they must be an extreme case of an equal opportunity employer! Most employers do not disciminate on the basis of Race, Creed and Color. Diebold has obviously taken this to the next level in that they don't disciminate on the basis of Ability, either. We shouldn't be slamming them! We should be applauding them for taking bigotry down another notch! If it weren't for Diebold all those guys would be out on the street or having to work in the exfoliating scrubber factory or something! Hooray, Diebold!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?