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New Diebold Security Concerns

By TChris, Section Elections
Posted on Sat May 13, 2006 at 08:19:24 AM EST
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by TChris

On Thursday, BlackBoxVoting released this report exposing security flaws with Diebold's electronic voting touch-pad terminals.

"It is like the nuclear bomb for e-voting systems," said Avi Rubin, computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University. "It's the deal breaker. It really makes the security flaws that we found (in prior years) look trivial."

States have been slow to respond to the problem, as this report describes. Pennsylvania was the first state to recognize the need to act. Iowa and California have also directed local election officials to take additional security steps to prevent unauthorized software from being loaded into the machines.

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    • New Diebold Security Concerns | 13 comments (13 topical)
    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat May 13, 2006 at 08:52:37 AM EST
    its really about the death of the USA (Bush needs that for his boys), End of story start of third world hell.

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#2)
    by orionATL on Sat May 13, 2006 at 09:10:48 AM EST
    not only would i like to see the fixing of these flaws addressed publicly but i would also like a professional estimate on how likely it was, or how easy it would have been, to exploit those flaws in the 2004-05 state or federal elections. given what we have come to know of the modus operandi of the rove/mehlman/barbour republican national committee i don't see why it is not entirely reasonable to assume that the rnc has a task force whose job it is to do, or to coach others to do, electronic voting machine manipulation.

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#3)
    by orionATL on Sat May 13, 2006 at 09:16:56 AM EST
    now that i have scanned the black box report another question comes to mind. could these three levels of potential invasion have found their way into the code accidentally? or is it possible, or likely, that they were programmed there? given the diebold company's former close association with the bush presidency, you don't have to be certifiably crazy to ask such questions.

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Sat May 13, 2006 at 09:41:35 AM EST
    digby has photographic proof that the machines are part of a criminal enterprise.

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#5)
    by Lora on Sat May 13, 2006 at 09:58:01 AM EST
    I am very glad to see this problem getting public recognition. It is my belief that there is no secure way to fix these machines. BTW, I had no idea Diebold was used in Canada. I'm confused; from another poster's comments on TL awhile ago, I thought they had paper ballots.

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#6)
    by Sailor on Sat May 13, 2006 at 10:00:42 AM EST
    Good one Squeaky! There is absolutely no reason that voting software can't be open source and secure. Personally, I believe diebold is in the business of fixing elections, and I think the proof is obvious. Want links?

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#7)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat May 13, 2006 at 10:08:10 AM EST
    If we don't fix the voting system, nothing else matters.

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Sat May 13, 2006 at 10:14:44 AM EST
    orionATL: could these three levels of potential invasion have found their way into the code accidentally? Security holes in the code of any software, regardless of the programming language used, can be purposely programmed in, and can be left in by a programmer purposely not programming an action to be taken for all data variables, but most often are there through a programmer forgetting to program actions to be taken for all data variables, and usually end up in the final product because proper and thorough testing was rushed or not completed, in the haste to complete development on time and within budget - in other words - the least amount of work was done to produce a functioning software product: Introduction to Software Security
    The extra twist in the security situation is that a bad guy is actively trying to make your software misbehave. This certainly makes security a tricky proposition. Malicious hackers don't create security holes; they simply exploit them. Security holes and vulnerabilities--the real root cause of the problem--are the result of bad software design and implementation. Bad guys build exploits (often widely distributed as scripts) that exploit the holes. (By the way, we try to refer to bad guys who exploit security holes as malicious hackers instead of simply hackers throughout this book.
    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat May 13, 2006 at 10:20:20 AM EST
    What are the implications for Colorado voting? I know we use touch screen voting in Jeffco, is this affected?

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat May 13, 2006 at 10:28:33 AM EST
    A real sleeper issue is getting honest secretaries of state in each state. No one pays much attention to the position, but a big part of the job (in most states) is oversight on election procedures. Obviously, if it goes to someone who's had their palm greased by Diebold or the RNC, the chances for fair elections aren't great.

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#11)
    by Edger on Sat May 13, 2006 at 10:28:43 AM EST
    Friday, December 16, 2005 Colorado faces a serious election problem.
    Colorado faces a serious election problem. Leon County, Florida, has dumped its Diebold voting equipment. According to the reports, insiders can manipulate election results when using Diebold voting equipment. They can do this without leaving any trace of the tampering. Twenty three of Colorado's 64 counties use Diebold voting equipment. Boulder County's HART/InterCivic voting equipment uses a "smart card" similar to the card that was manipulated during the Leon County demonstration.
    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#12)
    by Sailor on Sat May 13, 2006 at 10:29:29 AM EST
    I's currently doesn't matter what company's voting software you use, if it's electronic and stored on a removeable chip, it's prone to hacking.

    Re: New Diebold Security Concerns (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat May 13, 2006 at 11:25:54 AM EST
    photographic proof
    Jeebus. Well she didn't look too bad sat on that hoss.

    New Diebold Security Concerns | 13 comments (13 topical)