Diebold<--->Lobbyist<---> SAIC--->Found 328 security flaws/26 critical

[seafan]

Guess who was hired by the State of Maryland in 2003 to review the adverse findings of the Johns Hopkins University researchers' report that Diebold's machines were vulnerable to hacking?

SAIC (Science Applications International Corp)

SAIC is also mentioned in this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x521016#522210
NSA/Russert Show Thread #2


What's more, SAIC's investigation found 328 security weaknesses, 26 of them critical, in the new computerized system!

Did we know about this already??? Right here is verification of our *tinfoil hatters'* research!!!

The Sunday, September 28, 2003 WP story was on page C08.





Ehrlich Seeks Probe Over Ballot Machines
Contractor, Reviewer Used Same Lobbyist

By Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 28, 2003; Page C08


Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) has asked state investigators to look into the opposite interests of a well-known Annapolis lobbyist who represents two companies involved in the overhaul of the state's voting machine system.

Ehrlich requested the inquiry last week after learning that Gilbert J. Genn, a former Montgomery County delegate, is registered as a lobbyist for Diebold Election Systems Inc., the company that has a $ 55 million contract to provide the state with its electronic voting system, and Science Applications International Corp., the computer security company the state recently hired to examine the Diebold voting machines for flaws.

"It was a complete surprise to the administration," Shareese N. DeLeaver, a spokeswoman for Ehrlich, said yesterday.
The request by the governor to the State Ethics Commission was first reported yesterday in the Baltimore Sun.

Genn is listed on the Ethics Commission's Web site as the lobbyist for 11 companies, including Diebold and Science Applications.
"I encourage and welcome a review by the State Ethics Commission to validate that the independent third party examination by SAIC of the Diebold Voting System and the State of Maryland's Election Procedures was not in any way compromised," Genn said in a statement yesterday.

snip

The governor's request for an independent review of Diebold came on the heels of an analysis by computer security experts at Johns Hopkins University who found that the company's touch-screen machines had major flaws that could potentially change the outcome of an election.

Hopkins's Information Security Institute reported that Diebold's machines were so susceptible to security risks that even an inexperienced hacker could wreak havoc on the state's election process.

In its study released Thursday, Science Applications found 328 security weaknesses, 26 of them critical, in the new computerized system, which is supposed to be in full operation by the March presidential primary election. State officials said they will correct the problems identified in the Science Applications report and have the system ready by then.


Original link here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11151-2003Sep27?language=printer

[Dunvegan]

1. SAIC is an "inside loop" company.

After adjusting to SAIC's findings, Diebold can say the machines are fixed.

Things seem "fixed" all right.

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. Good morning!

Yeah, I've been following this for years. What you're noticing is a report in response to a report - and I've read the public version.

The sad fact is, there are a limited number of companies eligible to do this kind of sensitive work for governments, so it's less a conspiracy than business as usual.

[MelissaB]

3. I hate this business as usual stuff.

:banghead:

[Fredda Weinberg]

4. Then get involved

It helps.

[seafan]

5. It gets 'curiouser and curiouser'.

Uncle Sam Keeps SAIC On Call For Top Tasks

by Scott Shane, Baltimore Sun
October 26th, 2003


When the Pentagon wanted to assemble a team of Iraqi exiles to assist in restoring postwar Iraq, it gave the job to a company with a name not chosen for flashy marketing: Science Applications International Corp.
When Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. wanted experts to assess alleged security problems with electronic voting machines Maryland is buying, he, too, turned to SAIC.

The National Security Agency signed a contract with SAIC last year to overhaul its top-secret eavesdropping systems. The Army hired the company to support the delicate task of destroying old chemical weapons at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The National Cancer Institute relies on SAIC to help run its research facility in Frederick.
And this month, when the Transportation Security Administration decided it needed help disposing of all those nail clippers confiscated from air travelers, it gave the multimillion-dollar contract to SAIC.

snip

SAIC was built on two principles Beyster believed would encourage worker loyalty and enterprise: All stock is held by employees, and operations are extraordinarily decentralized.
"It's in one-person offices and 500-person offices," says Steve Rizzi, 40, a corporate vice president and 20-year employee who works in Annapolis. "What the company's really all about is the inspiration of individual entrepreneurs."
In Annapolis, Rizzi says, SAIC people are in three completely separate offices - Rizzi's 100-person information technology shop; EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program office; and a maritime operation that designs yachts for the America's Cup.

snip

SAIC's opportunities have been expanded by the war on terrorism. The company trained U.S. Special Forces troops to hunt for biological weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq - a task for which it employed Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, the former Army biowarfare expert who has been a focus of the FBI's anthrax investigation. It developed a gamma-ray imaging system that can see through 6 inches of steel to find contraband in cargo entering the United States. It wrote data-mining software that hunts through masses of text, such as NSA's voluminous intercepts, for word patterns that might reveal a planned terrorist attack.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7889

[seafan]

6. Take a look at this:

snip

The company made a fortune during the dot com boom by buying Network Solutions, the Web domain name keeper, for $4.5 million in 1996 and selling it for $3.1 billion before the bubble popped.
SAIC was given the contract to run the Occupational Authority’s Iraqi Media Network, including television stations, radio stations and newspapers. But even as propaganda goes, the network was such a flop – no Iraqis would watch it – that SAIC lost the contract this January.

But SAIC's biggest source of income is surveillance especially for the United States spy agencies: it is reportedly the largest recipient of contracts from the National Security Agency (NSA) and one of the top five contractors to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Some 5,000 employees (or one in eight employees) have security clearances. Beyster himself has one of the highest top-secret clearances of any civilian in the country. "We are a stealth company," Keith Nightingale, a former Army special ops officer, told a magazine named Business 2.0. "We're everywhere, but almost never seen."
Today two of SAIC's most valuable products are: TeraText and Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) data-mining programs that are used by intelligence agencies to sift the immense volumes of data they now collect by monitoring phone calls, faxes, e-mails, and other types of electronic communications.

snip

SAIC became home to former United Nations weapons inspector David Kay who went to SAIC as a vice president from 1993 to 2002. Last year he was hired by the CIA to return to Iraq and head the search for weapons of mass destruction.
Critics note that the company has a revolving door with the spy agencies: NSA veteran William B. Black Jr. retired from the intelligence agency in 1997, went to SAIC for three years and returned to the NSA as deputy director in 2000. Two years later, SAIC won the $282 million job of overseeing the latest phase of Trailblazer, the most thorough revamping in the agency's history of its eavesdropping systems.

SAIC has dozens of other government contracts: it trains air marshals for the Federal Aviation Administration, works with Bechtel to run the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada on Western Shoshone traditional lands (despite major protests from the Native Americans), The Army hired the company to destroy old chemical weapons at Aberdeen Proving Ground, the National Cancer Institute uses SAIC to help run its research facility in Frederick, the Transportation Security Administration asked it to dispose of scissors and pocket knives confiscated from air travelers and SAIC's unmanned Vigilante helicopters, equipped with Raytheon's low-cost, precision-kill rockets, are to undergo testing by the Army.

Not all of its surveillance work is for the United States military The company has installed a location-based Global Positioning System tracking service for BellSouth's 14,000 installation and maintenance vehicles and today its latest contract is to run security for the upcoming Athens Olympics from a zeppelin that will hover over the city.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=17

[drfresh]

7. K & R

[Dunvegan]

8. Great posts, sefan.

I've consulted to SAIC and the articles quite well explore the unusual relationship of a defense contractor that is "inside the loop" yet considered an "external entity" for purposes of fitness attestation regarding .gov projects.