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Diebold Voting Machines Vulnerable to Virus Attack
mcgrew writes "PC world is reporting that Diebold's super-popular voting machines are coming under even more scrutiny. A security review has revealed that they are simply 'not secure enough to guarantee a trustworthy election.' This is according to a report from the University of California Berkley, who did a two-month top-to-bottom review of all California e-voting systems. That's a subject we've discussed before, but Diebold's setup is truly unsettling. An attacker with access to a single machine could disrupt or change the outcome of an entire election using viruses. From the article: 'The report warned that a paper trail of votes cast is not sufficient to guarantee the integrity of an election using the machines. "Malicious code might be able to subtly influence close elections, and it could disrupt elections by causing widespread equipment failure on election day," it said. The source-code review went on to warn that commercial antivirus scanners do not offer adequate protection for the voting machines. "They are not designed to detect virally propagating malicious code that targets voting equipment and voting software," it said.' Oddly, my state of Illinois, long known for election fraud, has paper trails (at least in my county) and according to Black Box Voting doesn't use Diebold anywhere."
The even scarier part is that the Diebold machines have not been decertified.
The revolution will be mocked
As someone who had been contracted by Diebold, the machines are running Windows, the software is written in Visual Basic, and the database is Access. And no, this isn't a troll.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
I can vouch for that as someone else who works for a company contracted by Diebold. All of their machines (voting and other types) run Windows CE. And no, that is not a good thing.
It takes a big man to cry. It takes a bigger man to laugh at that man. ~ Jack Handy
This is a duplicate of the (still front-page Slashdot) story posted by CowboyNeal.
Please post a story about the Secretary of State's decision restricting the use of these machines.
There were three source code reports released -- for Diebold, Hart, and Sequoia, not just Diebold. All three systems had serious weaknesses, including viral propagation vectors. All of the reports are worth checking out.
FL, not known for election fraud because of creative media hijinks, is rife with election fraud.
in 2000, Volusia County, FL had one precinct count up (er down) -16,000 votes for Al Gore. That's Negative Sixteen Thousand.
It was allowed to pass in the final tally.
information from the blackbox voting documentary.
They're using their grammar skills there.
I'd respond by pointing out that we don't yet have electronic voting in Australia. We use pencil and paper, and the results of an election are normally available several hours after the close of voting.
At this year's federal election there will be a trial of e-voting for vision-impaired voters and overseas defence force personnel - for and overview see the Australian Electoral Commission site.
jmp