Electronic Vote Faces Big Test of Its Security

[maddezmom]

February 28, 2004
Electronic Vote Faces Big Test of Its Security
By JOHN SCHWARTZ

~snip~
Independent studies have found flaws in Diebold's system that researchers say might allow hackers or corrupt insiders to reprogram the touchscreens or computers that tally the votes, without leaving a trace.

Without a paper record of every vote or some other way to verify voters' choices after the fact, these experts warn, elections may lose the public's trust.

"People complain about hanging chads," said Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a co-author of the first study that found security flaws in the Diebold machines. "But if an electronic machine has malicious code in it, it's possible that all of the chads are hanging — and then you have to question every vote."

The company has worked to fix all security issues that researchers have described, said David Bear, a Diebold spokesman. "Those things have not only already been addressed," he said, "they were implemented."

~snip~
much more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/politics/campaign/28VOTE.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=

[leftchick]

1. "conspiracy theories"

gee, that's helpful...

<For more than a year, Diebold also has been fighting conspiracy theories popularized on the Internet that say its Jetsons-at-the-polling-place wares serve as cover for an ongoing effort to stuff electronic ballot boxes on behalf of the Republican Party.

Diebold executives, along with outside computer security experts who are seeking to fix the voting machines, say the conspiracy theories are bunk. The company's chief executive, Walden W. O'Dell, did not help matters, though, when he sent out a fund-raising letter for the Bush campaign last summer saying he was committed to "helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president next year."

The conspiracy talk took off not long after the November 2002 election here, when two Georgia Democrats, Gov. Roy Barnes and Senator Max Cleland, were defeated in upsets.

It was the first time in the United States that new touchscreen machines from Diebold had been used in a statewide election. And several months before the election, the software on the machines received patches that had not been vetted by independent testing authorities.>

[trumad]

2. This is a poorly written piece

with nothing new.... conspiracy theories?

[gristy]

3. more comments on this article here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x409265