Hacking Votes

CIO Journal ^ | 9/27/2012 | Michael Hickins

[Positive]

Advanced Voting Systems of Frisco, Texas, clearly didn’t give software security a thought when it designed its electronic voting machines.

The AVS WinVote system is vulnerable to wireless computer sabotage, but because of a lack of funding to replace them, those machines are still in use in more than a third of the polling localities in Virginia, a swing state that could determine the outcome of this year’s U.S. presidential election.

A new Virginia law bans wireless capabilities in voting machines, but allows the use of those machines election officials already purchased.

Jeremy Epstein, a computer researcher who helped draft the legislation, tells CIO Journal the opportunity for hackers to remotely transmit code to the devices, “magnifies any other vulnerability in the voting system.”

[Windflier]

[Positive]

Indeed.

[WellyP]

The French vote on paper and they process the results almost as quickly as we do. We need to get rid of electronic voting machines!

[verum ago]

A wireless enabled voting machine?! Why would even the manufacturer have thought that to be a good idea?

Does this same company manufacturer debit cards with people's PINs printed right on them, or perhaps safes that don't lock?

[afraidfortherepublic]

I’m in favor of paper ballots and purple ink on the finger.

[MeganC]

Thank you, I was looking for a new tagline.

[Windflier]

Thank you, I was looking for a new tagline.

You're welcome, Meg. Wear it with pride.

[Crucial]

If the polls are skewed and the count is skewed, who’s the wiser? They will say the winner was rightly predicted.