Hack: How to Steal an Election

Comments

• Look Behind The Curtain Phineas on 10/31/2006 at 3:51 AM

  Posts: 42 Avg Rating:

  I have read about diebold correcting faulty software on the QT, without the oversight of election officials who are supposed to be in charge of whether these machines can pass muster. The public worries that our democratic system may be perverted by fraud when new technology leaves us befuddled and vulnerable to abuse. Diebold seems to be taking a chapter from the Wizard Of Oz and asking us not to pay any attention to that man behind the curtain. We should scrutinize the heck out of him. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• Voting William on 10/31/2006 at 8:08 AM

  Posts: 1

  Unfortuately the ways of 'stealing' an election using paper are never discussed along side the perceived problems of electronic voting.  If so detailed the electronic versions would appear to be the clear choice.  By the way, when was the last time one walked away from paper voting with a 'record' of the choices made? Along with all the hoopla surrounding electronic voting the amount of time and effort required to 'hack' the systems is never revealed.  I suspect it takes hours/days to come up with the methods the first time.  Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • Re: Voting zenkat on 10/31/2006 at 9:44 AM

    Posts: 2

    William, did you watch the linked presentation? The hack was perpetrated in under a minute by loading a virus via a memory card. That means a few minutes of unsupervised time with these machines is all that's required to steal an election. That's a scary fact.  Consider the San Diego special election recently held to replace the corrupt former Congressman Duke Cunningham.  The machines used in the election were taken home by poll workers and spent eight hours of unsupervised time before the election.  Given the fact that these machines could have been hacked during that time, why should I as a citizen trust these election results? If an IT department at any major financial institution provided systems this shoddy, they'd be summarily canned.  We treat Visa records more securly than we treat our votes. That's a shame. Rate this comment: (Reply)

    • Re: Voting enantiomer2000 on 10/31/2006 at 5:05 PM

      Posts: 23 Avg Rating:

      Heck yeah.  We need an electronic voting machine to give you a personal paper copy of the way you voted along with a unique identifier.  You should be able to look up the recorded copy of your vote via the internet to make sure it was recorded accurately.  Only then can we be sure that we really do live in a democratic country.  As of right now, I don't really  know if we do.  Do my votes count?  Maybe?  Hopefully.  But hope and faith are things I don't put much weight on anymore. If we spent 1/10th the amount that we spend in Iraq in voting technology, we would be sitting pretty. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• 	So let's do it! bmn on 11/04/2006 at 1:54 AM
  Posts: 25 Avg Rating:	Really the only way to get these holes patched is to actually carry out a hack job in a live election. My idea is to make it so a 3rd party candidate wins every race where there is more than 2 people running. If both the Democrats and the Republicans lose every race, you can bet that the politicians will make sure the problem is fixed, no matter who is in power. Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • 	Re: So let's do it! RBK505 on 11/04/2006 at 1:43 PM
    Posts: 1	I agree!  That would undoubtedly be illegal, but it is probably the only way to get their attention and their efforts focused on fixing the problems! Rate this comment: (Reply)

• 	You trust your money but not your vote to computers? gabrielg01 on 11/08/2006 at 11:47 AM
  Posts: 270 Avg Rating:	I agree that all weaknesses of the voting system should be corrected ASAP. But aside all the hysteria surrounding this issue, think about this: you trust your money to computers - most people use online access to their accounts, and even those who do not, they still indirectly rely on computers. So we trust our money to computers, but not our votes? Please! Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • Re: You trust your money but not your vote to computers? pries on 11/27/2006 at 2:12 AM

    Posts: 1

    We do trust our money to computers, but at what cost?  Take credit cards...there is a lot of fraud.  What does it cost us?  Well, every transaction we charge costs our merchants somewhere between 2% and 3% to clear (and that cost is partially added the price we pay for every item whether or not we use our credit cards).  Some of this pays for the network and profit margin and all, but some of it goes to pay for credit card fraud (and some people lose money out of their pockets, though apparently not you, YET). (see stats on http://www.epaynews.com/statistics/fraud.html for a guess at the order of magnitude, which also implies some of the load is also paid by the retailers, so again would be added to the price of the products you buy.) Perhaps you don't consider credit cards to be part of your analogy, but I would argue that other forms of banking are also subject to fraud. Perhaps you will admit it was not such a good analogy, but before we abandon it, please consider: Would you be willing to let me cast 1% of the votes in the the next election any way I want? It certainly would have been enough to change the last two presidential elections. With respect, please consider that just because you can't imagine someone stealing an election doesn't mean it won't happen.  Before 9/11 most people didn't think that  would happen either. Of course, we'll probably never know. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• 	Hacking Democracy neilrieck on 11/10/2006 at 6:25 AM
  Posts: 4	A 90 miniute HBO video titled "Hacking Democracy" can be viewed for free at http://video.goolge.com Rate this comment: (Reply)