E-voting hacks to get Capitol Hill spotlight

A recent report documenting computer scientists' ability to hack into voting machines certified for use in the state of California has already begun reverberating on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who happens to be one of the chief sponsors of a bill that would prohibit paperless voting machines by the 2010 federal elections, says she plans to hold a hearing in September on the report in the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, which she leads. The politicians are expected to break for the summer at the end of this week.

In a statement Tuesday, Feinstein expressed dismay at "how easily these machines could be hacked into and election results distorted," based on her reading of the report.

"The findings are yet another reason that states and counties should consider a move to optical scan machines that provide an auditable, individual voter-verified paper record without having to rely on a separate printer," she went on.

The study, commissioned by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, focused on machines made by Diebold Election Systems, Hart InterCivic, and Sequoia Voting Systems. The University of California researchers who conducted the testing rattled off a list of security weaknesses they were able to exploit in each of the machines--although they didn't attempt to quantify how difficult it was to carry out the hacks.

[Jadefa]

Dems Are Afraid of Voter Fraud?

Whats this?!!

The Party that buys homeless people cigarettes and booze then loads them on a bus to the polls coaching them to vote Democrat, recruits illegal immigrants & felons, doesn't like punch card ballots because most Dems can't figure out how to punch the right chad or if they do they leave it hanging, uses lies and racial fearmongering to get people to the polls, tosses Republican ballots into the San Francisco Bay only to be recovered by the Coast Gaurd and then covered up by the SF Chronical is worried about voter fraud?!! What a legacy of loons!

Dems will stand in the way of Progress any way they can because they are invested in the destruction of a strong America.

[Dalkorian]

whoa!

The spin you Republicans put on things makes me dizzy. Hitler was
good at that too.

[Mkdilg]

Voter Fraud is a Republican term - Dems are alert for Election Fraud by GOP

Voter fraud is about phony voters. GOP pretend they're a big problem and purge lists of the poor and other voters unlikely to vote GOP. Election fraud is the tragedy that has imperiled our Constitution and caused a war based on lies. Election fraud is caused by tampering with the vote count and preventing voters from voting correctly or going to the polls at all. Voter fraud is voting for the dead and other "retail" cheating. Election fraud is flipping a vote with "the Math" (Karl Rove) turned into a logrithm that messes with an electronic tabulation by percentages. Election fraud is creating phony absentee ballots wholesale (10,000 in the last four days before CA 50 special election in San Diego) and substituting created absentees for real ones taken out of envelopes in secret (yes, it's done.) Dems are increasingly not afraid, but courageous. We are fighting election fraud while the GOP pretends there is "voter fraud" and "fights" it - one of their shell-game distraction tricks, trying to make us keep our eye on the wrong shell, where the pea is not beneath.

[kdraks]

They WILL steal the election

The republicans will do ANYTHING to steal the election and if that means tampering with electronic voting machines they will. Look, ATMS are not hackable nor have they ever been breached and they are 20 year old technology. So if ATMS are secure, why can't the voting people use the same secure technologies to protect our voting information? MY guess is that the republicans (diebold is headed by one of the wacko, hard right repubs) are thwarting the ability of people to use current security technology. There is NO reason for electronic voting machines to be less secure than say you internet based banking app, or Paypal or Ebay...

[avnirambhia]

who's accountable for voting machine security

The challenge in using any security technology to "safeguard" voting machines is this - the organization that builds and sells the machine is not the same as the organization that needs to ensure they work correctly and are hackproof. This isn't just a question of using latest security technology to protect the voting systems (which of course is necessary). The election commission or some similar body needs to select strong anti-tamper technology vendors, then mandates the use of robust anti-tamper technology and, finally COMPREHENSIVELY PENETRATION-TEST the finished product to certify that it works, and is secured, as it should be. Mandatory security standards aren't a new idea - and they should be aggressively applied to voting machines. People wouldn't trust a car that didn't have a third-party crash test safety rating. They shouldn't trust a voting machine that doesn't have a credible safety rating either.

[angelfast]

Reply

I know very well that car maintenance is the first concern for the car buyers. Whether you own a sedan car, SUV, sports car or a luxury vehicle you would normally seek assurance that car parts, its exterior and interior accessories, body kits, car spoilers, billet grilles, wheels, rims etc are freely available. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, General Motors, BMW, Ford and many car manufacturers have taken care of this need of their customers. While purchasing car parts price of the OEM car parts has always been as issue. High priced car parts scare away the car parts buyers in spite of the fact the OEM car parts offer reasonable duration of warranty and after sales service and replacement options. Buying of aftermarket car parts, on the hand, is a very good option. The low priced aftermarket car part, Volvo brake parts - billet grille; car spoilers have extended ease to the buyers. They can no buy aftermarket car parts for the sake of maintaining their cars and obtaining a longer useful service.