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Should We Ignore the South Carolina Election Hacking Story? (securityledger.com)
chicksdaddy provides five (or more) "good" reasons why we should ignore the South Carolina election hacking story that was reported yesterday. According to yesterday's reports, South Carolina's voter-registration system was hit with nearly 150,000 hack attempts on election day. Slashdot reader chicksdaddy writes from an opinion piece via The Security Ledger: What should we make of the latest reports from WSJ, The Hill, etc. that South Carolina's election systems were bombarded with 150,000 hacking attempts? Not much, argues Security Ledger in a news analysis that argues there are lots of good reasons to ignore this story, if not the very real problem of election hacking. The stories were based on this report from The South Carolina Election Commission. The key phrase in that report is "attempts to penetrate," Security Ledger notes. Information security professionals would refer to that by more mundane terms like "port scans" or probes. These are kind of the "dog bites man" stories of the cyber beat -- common (here's one from 2012 US News & World Report) but ill informed. "The kinds of undifferentiated scans that the report is talking about are the internet equivalent of people driving slowly past your house." While some of those 150,000 attempts may well be attempts to hack South Carolina's elections systems, many are undifferentiated, while some may be legitimate, if misdirected. Whatever the case, they're background noise on the internet and hardly unique to South Carolina's voter registration systems. They're certainly not evidence of sophisticated, nation-state efforts to crack the U.S. election system by Russia, China or anyone else, Security Ledger argues. "The problem with lumping all these 'hacking attempts' in the same breath as you talk about sophisticated and targeted attacks on the Clinton Campaign, the DCCC, and successful penetration of some state election boards is that it dramatically distorts the nature and scope of the threat to the U.S. election system which -- again -- is very real." The election story is one "that demands thoughtful and pointed reporting that can explore (and explode) efforts by foreign actors to subvert the U.S. vote and thus its democracy," the piece goes on to argue. "That's especially true in an environment in which regulators and elected officials seem strangely incurious about such incidents and disinclined to investigate them."
There has been nonstop coverage about how the election was "hacked", of course that may not fit into your or others narrative that if they didn't directly hack voting machines then there is no "hacking" (let's call this the glove does not fit so you must acquit theory). There was the DNC hack and leaks and the disinformation campaigns that have been well covered and sourced to be either Russian government lead or by Russian parties with which we are unsure of their ties. You hear about Russia 20 times a day because the Trump campaign and Cabinet and close ties are oozing in unanswered questions/connections with regard to Russia and every day a new connection either direct or indirectly made.
That is all non-partisan fact. Take of it what you will.
those scans are so prevalent because they are regularly successful.
Those scans are so prevalent because they're trivially easy to implement - regardless of the success percentage. That percentage can be very low and still be worthwhile.
#DeleteChrome
Plus voter ID, clear ballot boxes and indelible ink marks on voters thumbs to prevent double voting. The UN has a set of best practices.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Perfectly willing to claim Trump was elected from vote hacking - er no. President Trump was elected by an out moded and no longer useful electoral college system, rather than a simple popular vote. Also, fear, fake news, and statements that play on the ignorance of his supporters and lack of imagination.
utterly unwilling to investigate or question any votes er, no. There is no reason President Trump needs the names, ages social security numbers and party affiliation data from the States to investigate what little voting fraud there was. Now, if you want to dig in to election fraud vs. vote fraud, then we need just a little more data on Russia ties.
It is absurd to claim with as loose as protocol is around most voting systems, that there is not widespread voter fraud ongoing - thus trying to prove a negative. Hm um. There is no evidence there is vote (as opposed to election) fraud going on.
Just to be clear, vote fraud is when someone casts a ballot when they aren't supposed to. Election fraud is things like passing ID requirements to vote.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
The UN makes third world countries use real ID to vote. That doesn't ring true to my knowledge. Do you have a citation for that? Years ago when I was keeping up with this sort of thing, what they did was use ink on the finger or thumb showing that person voted. If you think about it, third world countries have problems getting clean drinking water, food security, sanitation, and clothing - let alone health care, so I guess the US does share a little in common with them. I expect that in a place like India, where 60% of the population doesn't have access to a toilet, an ID would come pretty far down on their list of important needs.
Why can't we do the same in the first world? Fine. Let's also require ID to purchase a gun and ammunition. But really, there is no need for either of those solutions. After all, I'm told gun violence is fake news, and I don't see any cases of mass voter fraud, just the one off Republican voting in two states.
As far as how prevalent fraud is... you put cart before horse claiming it's nothing. Impossible to say when the cheaters won't allow an investigation. I think purple elephants are a problem in my front yard, so I drew a huge KEEP OFF sign. Sure works. Haven't seen a purple elephant in years now. Of course that's nonsense, but I hope that you can at least see my view of your argument. It's nonsensical to me. If there were massive voter fraud, I think the authorites would be locking people up. As it stands, the FBI crime report shows fewer than 200 convictions of voter fraud in 2014.
We investigate the hell out of everything else but oh no don't look behind the vote fraud curtains! Nothing to see there! Trust me! No one is saying there is no vote fraud, we're saying it's not six million votes big. Slight difference there. And President Trump is the one that in my opinion, over uses the words "Believe me" and "Trust me". I do neither because I have a memory, a intellect, a moral compass, and a bit of compassion for my fellow human beings.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.