one person with technical knowledge and timely access could fix election

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR2006062701451.html?nav=rss_politics

A Single Person Could Swing an Election
Electronic Systems' Weaknesses May Be Countered With Audits, Report Suggests

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, June 28, 2006; Page A07

To determine what it would take to hack a U.S. election, a team of cybersecurity experts turned to a fictional battleground state called Pennasota and a fictional gubernatorial race between Tom Jefferson and Johnny Adams. It's the year 2007, and the state uses electronic voting machines.

Jefferson was forecast to win the race by about 80,000 votes, or 2.3 percent of the vote. Adams's conspirators thought, "How easily can we manipulate the election results?"

The experts thought about all the ways to do it. And they concluded in a report issued yesterday that it would take only one person, with a sophisticated technical knowledge and timely access to the software that runs the voting machines, to change the outcome.

The report, which was unveiled at a Capitol Hill news conference by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice and billed as the most authoritative to date, tackles some of the most contentious questions about the security of electronic voting.

The report concluded that the three major electronic voting systems in use have significant security and reliability vulnerabilities. But it added that most of these vulnerabilities can be overcome by auditing printed voting records to spot irregularities. And while 26 states require paper records of votes, fewer than half of those require regular audits.

"With electronic voting systems, there are certain attacks that can reach enough voting machines . . . that you could affect the outcome of the statewide election," said Lawrence D. Norden, associate counsel of the Brennan Center.

[orleans]

1. well, at least it's being talked about and some

republicans are interested (it's about time!)

maybe if everyone hurries and runs they'll be able to kill these machines before it's too late and the pukes steal another freakin election!!!

[Alexodin]

2. Ok who is going to be the first one to stand up and say yes

I hacked the elections I am willing to face the music? If it's so easy then why don't we hack them? Yes its illegal and as an act of civil disobedience we are willing to face the music for doing it. We are not supposed to be able to do it so they might have a problem with prosecuting someone who is telling them exactly how they did it. I will. Tell me how. Lets get this show on the road. Post the Hursti hack for all to see.