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!"

Comments

Still in business

[j00r0m4nc3r]

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?

Re:Still in business

[aquabat]

Two words: Government Contracts.

Re:Still in business

[gstoddart]

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?

That's because they aren't being viewed with a critical eye by the people buying voting machines.

The people who are making those decisions continue to want to have the voting machines in the face of all of the evidence showing how unsecure/not-tamper-proof these things really are.

Apparently, the government doesn't seem too bothered by a vendor who is selling a product which is completely insecure.

Cheers

Re:Still in business

[drinkypoo]

What's with Diebold? Why don't they die?

I believe the following will explain: "The company came under fire last year for a letter that Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell wrote as a fundraising pitch to Republicans. In the letter, O'Dell said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president." Diebold is based in North Canton, Ohio." (http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/30/technology/electi on_diebold/index.htm)

Frankly no one in power really seems to want a fair election. If they did, they'd be fighting these e-voting machines all the way - as there is absolutely no need for them.

Re:Still in business

[Anonymous Coward]

"DieBold, Die" is German for "The, Bold, The" - Bob

DieBold Security.....

[Prysorra]

To Boldy die where no security has died before!

Re:the only thing..

[jfengel]

Apparently they're not very good at that, either.

National Election Commision

[ghoul]

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

Also why not have a paper trail .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).

Re:National Election Commision

[Midnight Thunder]

Also why not have a paper trail .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).

In many ways Diebold et al. are all showing symptoms of not realising that they are trying to add technology to the wrong part of the process. In many ways the punch card system or optical card reader systems are the better systems, since the paper trail exists before the vote is taken into account: WYSIWYG. The proposed solutions provide a paper trail as a result of the process, if at all. The problem with this is that the paper trail may not be a result of what you inputted.

Remember just because technology can be used for a process, it does not necessarily mean that technology is needed for the process. Technology is there to make a complex task simple, not the other way round.

Google

[Daemonstar]

Diebold has removed the offending picture

However, it remains (scaled down) in Google's image cache. :) Might not be of much use, but it is there.

Security through...

[griffjon]

Hey, at least we know they're not relying on security through obscurity!

This is a security company?

[Schraegstrichpunkt]

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?

Re:This is a security company?

[SatanicPuppy]

When you've only got seconds to doctor the votes, you can't be fumbling around with a big keychain.

Jeez. I'd have thought that was obvious... ;)

It's a pin-based lock?

[RyanFenton]

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

Undaunted

[imaginaryelf]

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.

What concerns me even more

[Iphtashu Fitz]

... is the fact that Diebold also manufacturs ATMs. Makes me wonder if my bank account is safe...

Winner

[liak12345]

This time they posted, on their website, a picture of the actual key used to open all of their Diebold voting machines.

Diebold just won the golden "Are You Fucking Kidding Me?" Award of 2007.

Re:Winner

[imsabbel]

Dont they every year?

Fear not, indeed

[ReverendLoki]

But fear not, Diebold has removed the offending picture [CC], replacing it with a picture of their digital card key.

Using this picture as a base, I have crafted three digital card keys...

Florida House 13

[bloodstar]

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:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section ?CATEGORY=NEWS0521&template=ovr2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida's_13th_congre ssional_district
http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.ph p?id=6423
http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/12/the_cqpolitics_i nterview_chris_1.html

Re:Its from the please-think-then-vote dept.

[PeeAitchPee]

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.

Better yet...

[eclectro]

A picture is worth a thousand votes.