On the other hand, having poor security believing it's strong *may* be better than having no security believing it's unneccessary. The article says that simply having the "foil case or a weave in the cover that will cloak the chip" should be enough to protect the data.
Personally, I'd prefer having some sort of encryption on it, especially if the alternative is plaintext. Although it is true that it is possible to break encryption, as was recently shown with SHA-1, it takes time and effort to do this.
Simply because it CAN be broken doesn't mean that we shouldn't use it. I'd much rather have it that only people willing to invest copious amounts of time into breaking the encryption can get to my personal data as compared to anyone who can read the chip.
I would say that the generated pieces, though interesting to look at and pleasing to the eye, would not qualify as art. The rule of thumb that I've learned to use as a guide in this question is: "If you need to ask, then the answer is no." Calling something 'art' does not make it a work of art, just as calling a chair 'a table' does not make it a table.
By the article, it says that Diebold "has also agreed to certain technology and reporting obligations that will provide election officials with a better understanding of how to use its voting machines."
So it looks to me that they aren't going to fix the problems with the machines, just let people know how to use the voting machines. It would be nice if they actually fixed the machines and the security flaws...
It's logical that they wouldn't want this on the regular internet. Even if they could guarantee the encryption they use is unbreakable, a sufficiently large DDOS attack on the central servers could still wreak havoc on the system.
My concern with the system is when and where authentication would take place. Would it be every time when the "marines in a Humvee, in a faraway land, in the middle of a rainstorm" need a single map? This seems like overkill, especially if time is critical. Perhaps once per reboot? Then, if a laptop would be captured or stolen, it could be used to allow an enemy access to the stored spy imagery on the system.
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On the other hand, having poor security believing it's strong *may* be better than having no security believing it's unneccessary. The article says that simply having the "foil case or a weave in the cover that will cloak the chip" should be enough to protect the data.
Personally, I'd prefer having some sort of encryption on it, especially if the alternative is plaintext. Although it is true that it is possible to break encryption, as was recently shown with SHA-1, it takes time and effort to do this. Simply because it CAN be broken doesn't mean that we shouldn't use it. I'd much rather have it that only people willing to invest copious amounts of time into breaking the encryption can get to my personal data as compared to anyone who can read the chip.
I would say that the generated pieces, though interesting to look at and pleasing to the eye, would not qualify as art. The rule of thumb that I've learned to use as a guide in this question is: "If you need to ask, then the answer is no."
Calling something 'art' does not make it a work of art, just as calling a chair 'a table' does not make it a table.
By the article, it says that Diebold "has also agreed to certain technology and reporting obligations that will provide election officials with a better understanding of how to use its voting machines." So it looks to me that they aren't going to fix the problems with the machines, just let people know how to use the voting machines. It would be nice if they actually fixed the machines and the security flaws...
It's logical that they wouldn't want this on the regular internet. Even if they could guarantee the encryption they use is unbreakable, a sufficiently large DDOS attack on the central servers could still wreak havoc on the system.
My concern with the system is when and where authentication would take place. Would it be every time when the "marines in a Humvee, in a faraway land, in the middle of a rainstorm" need a single map? This seems like overkill, especially if time is critical. Perhaps once per reboot? Then, if a laptop would be captured or stolen, it could be used to allow an enemy access to the stored spy imagery on the system.