Thoughts 30 Oct 2008 07:29 am
Study: E-voting Machines Are Easily Hackable
It took a formal study by Princeton University to tell them what anyone who knows anything about computers already knew.
With eight days to go before the presidential election, a report has been released by Princeton University and other groups that sharply criticizes the e-voting machines used in New Jersey and elsewhere as unreliable and potentially prone to hacking.
The 158-page report, which was ordered by a New Jersey judge as part of an ongoing four-year legal fight over the machines, says the e-voting machines can be “easily hacked” in about seven minutes by anyone with basic computer knowledge. Such hacking activity could enable fraudulent firmware to steal votes from one candidate and give them to another, the report said.
The controversy involves the Sequoia AVC Advantage 9.00H direct-recording electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines made by Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems.
The report comes amid news stories in at least three states — West Virginia, Texas and Tennessee — where voters have told local election officials that they believe the e-voting machines they used tried to “flip” their votes to other candidates.
The report gives details on how the machines could be manipulated by someone who wanted to change the results of the election, and it strongly criticizes the designs and security of the devices.
At the same time, Appel said that while such a scenario is possible, “it doesn’t mean that somebody is dishonest enough to do it.”
“Dishonest enough to do it.” –People have been rigging elections ever since the very first election. Why on earth would they suddenly change.
The company that makes the machines denies there’s a problem and accused Princeton of removing security hardware before testing. So what? If I’m one of the state’s election officials and I’m going to rig the outcome I’m going to have the access and the time to remove the hardware, change the chip and put it all back together. –I believe that’s something on the order of seven minutes per machine.
Remember, they don’t need to do all of them. They need to do just enough of them to tip the balance.
Also remember, there’s no paper trail in most states.
You trust them. –I remember Florida.
Some more light reading. –Ain’t technology wonderful.