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Hacker Exposes Florida's Voting Database — Again
Dangerous_Minds writes "A hacker that goes by the name of Abhaxas exposed parts of the Florida voting database. That apparently didn't sit well with election officials. Reportedly, officials said that authorities were contacted and that their databases are now more secure than ever. In turn, Abhaxas decided to hack the database again and reveal a file directory. Said Abhaxas in the posting, 'Glad you cleaned things up, pretty secure now guys.'"
nothing beats it.get back to the way things were done , by hand , and say goodbye to cracked databases.
i lived in FL and it's the worst place for voting.We should all pressure FL to go back to good old hand counting and manual
voter list generation
We do it in Canuckia without trouble , dont tell me FL can't do it.
all your votes are belong to us!
nobody gives a shit, AGAIN!
They probably thought the authorities were physically guarding the database.
The voting system in Florida is 100% secure, they absolutely positively guarantee that there is ZERO chance of ANY voter being able to affect the predetermined outcome sold to the highest bidder.
Oh yeah thought they were trying to ensure the voters choice was not tampered with? What a silly idea.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I posted this last time I saw a story about this hacker but I point out again. Abhaxas must have taken the name from Abraxas Guardian Of The Universe. It easily ranks among some of the worst movies ever mane. But I'll let other be the judge of that. Here's part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs6yYAMpxUs Or is there some other reference I'm missing?
The voting system in Florida is 100% secure, they absolutely positively guarantee that there is ZERO chance of ANY voter being able to affect the predetermined outcome sold to the highest bidder.
Now that's just cynical, SFC, even for you ;-)
Abhaxas is playing with fire. Politicians don't like to be embarrassed - especially over and over again for the same thing (except coke and hookers, of course). But this is Florida so he has a decent chance of getting acquitted.
Most if not all of you will have heard something along the following lines...
"I'm getting infected by a lot of viruses since you've installed an antivirus on my PC. I'm worried, how can I solve this problem?"
How do you think these kind of people react to the recent hacking activities? I myself consider them to be at least a necessary evil, but the average Joe's mind will scream... these hackers are making our system unsecure, make them go away!
The hackers are not making the system unsecure Joe - the system was unsecure to begin with. You're just being uncomfortable with the truth.
they should be happy hes doing it for them before an election.
{whispered aside}
Voting database? I told them we've already got one.
{written in a ridiculous French accent}
Now, I told you silly Florida officials to go away or I would taunt you a second time.
Rick Scott, your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!
why is any computer holding the voting db even online? why do you need internet access? what is the problem with using an offline db and syncing the voting machines or something?
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
They probably were...but the bastard slipped through the intertubes!
Anyone notice he posted the file listing as root?
Also, cleartext passwords in the database, all using the same format. For shame.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
That is, if he/she is even sitting in the U.S. .
Check out the passwords in the paste bin. Who the hell comes up with these? Two letters, one for the first name, one for the last name and a 4 digit numeric code?
You can't handle the truth.
Key Largo Election Official explains vote counting process.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
It's not just tampering. When a district has undesirable votes, whole voting machines disappear rather than editing the data. "par for the course" claimed one mayor when ask why one machine was found hidden under boxes of stationary. Needless to say the votes weren't counted or any investigate made as to how it could happen.
The result of insecure voting is less problematic if you're using pen and paper. That's got NOTHING to do with nostalgia.
If your electronic voting is insecure, a script can add 10 million votes in a few seconds.
If your paper voting is insecure, someone can stuff a few hundred votes in a day.
And if you're spending millions on electroinic voting because it's secure and it isn't, then how about saving money and going with the cheap option: paper.
ls -ail ???
I think a better command would have been ....
tar -c . | bzip2 | base64
All your vote are belong to us- fixed that, now you can get a +4
"Glad you cleaned things up, pretty secure now guys."
Honestly, if you knew someone that behaved like this in your personal relationship, wouldn't you just want to take a 2x4 and whack them upside the head?
There is a reason people like this are living in their mother's basements.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Cynical, but absolutely correct. The two usually go hand in hand. Perhaps we need an analog to Occam's razor. When all other things are equal, the most cynical explanation is most likely correct.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Great...
Mistake #1: Application obviously runs as root
Mistake #2: Permissions on directory should not be 644 but 600!
Mistake #3: Server with VITAL Data obviously publicly accessible. It should be firewalled in, separate from the webfrontend...
Mistake #4: You use CSV for storing the data???? This is a voting machine? You people SCARE me! This should be WORM device for audit purposes!
I really don't want to know what the rest of the "application" looks like.. Please fire your implementor. This is really asking for it. You are doing a disservice to the people you are supposed to serve!
pwnd
THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!
No he won't. Lying to police investigating a murder warrants only 4 years, while embarrassing politicians is a major crime worthy of 25 years to life!
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
He was hoping that he could get away with his spewing without being called on it.
Ah, the ol' Slashdot Razor. Secretly brought to us by The Jews who are running the world.
P.S. Hitler. That should stop this from devolving.
The only reason pen and paper are "secure" is that they aren't online. Take the f#$%ing database offline, Florida!
I8-D
Aren't there nationalized standards for elections in the US? Why is this only Florida's problem? Why is it that the wheel keeps having to be reinvented from state to state?
What was wrong--I'm not being facetious--I would like to know, with the old voting machines. The ones in which you pushed the big lever to the right, flipped down the little knobs to vote and then push the lever back. Were they hackable? It drives me crazy when the computer experts warn warn warn, but the right wing powers that be, funded by the corporations with the most to gain monetarily and politically, ignore the warnings and are once again wrong wrong wrong.
I'm rather unclear exactly WHAT has been hacked as it's not the actual voting data. I've verified that with people who worked with the system. It's definitely not normal to have any data easy to get to so it should cause an increased effort at security but nothing has been compromised that would affect any actual votes. One theory is that a test system of some sort got compromised. The fact that it's called a "Florida" database is mystifying as well since it's all county by county. If he's getting into some county's test system then that system needs to be secured.