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An ‘Off-the-Shelf, Skeleton Project’: Experts Analyze the App That Broke Iowa
Vice ^ | February 5, 2020 | Jason Koebler, Joseph Cox, and Emanuel Maiberg

Posted on 02/06/2020 7:34:01 AM PST by C19fan

The app used to report early results in Iowa's Democratic Presidential primary caucus was rudimentary in many ways, according to analyses by multiple Android app development experts and cybersecurity professionals who decompiled and studied the app after it was obtained by Motherboard.

The app, called IowaReporterApp and developed by a company called Shadow Inc., malfunctioned during the caucus, causing mass chaos and delaying the public reporting of results until Tuesday evening. The app was designed to rapidly report early results, not tabulate final vote counts. That means its failure will not result in the election result being altered.

But, until now, very little has been published about how the app was designed, how it was supposed to work, and what went wrong on caucus night.

Motherboard asked six cybersecurity and app development experts we trust to analyze the app. The app was built on top of React Native, an open-source app development package released by Facebook that can be used for both Android and iOS apps, according to Kasra Rahjerdi, who has been an Android developer since the original Android project was launched, and Robert Baptiste, a white-hat hacker who has exposed security flaws in many popular apps and reviewed the code. Rahjerdi said that the app contains default React Native metadata and that it comes off as a "very very off the shelf skeleton project plus add your own code kind of thing."

(Excerpt) Read more at vice.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: code; democrats
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How much did the Democrats pay for crappy code???
1 posted on 02/06/2020 7:34:01 AM PST by C19fan
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To: C19fan

Depends on who the crap artists were/are related to....


2 posted on 02/06/2020 7:35:40 AM PST by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches, or Trump in general, while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
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To: C19fan

It’s 100% true that the president of the company that owns Shadow, Tara McGowen, is married to Michael Halle who was Hillary’s Iowa coordinator in 16 and currently a Buttigieg senior strategist.


3 posted on 02/06/2020 7:38:01 AM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: C19fan

“That means its failure will not result in the election result being altered.”

Does this mean that it’s success will result in the election result being altered?


4 posted on 02/06/2020 7:38:11 AM PST by Hegemony Cricket (< < Wandering aimfully > >)
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To: C19fan

WAS IT ‘SHAREWARE’ OR WAS IT ‘PIRATED’ CODE?.................


5 posted on 02/06/2020 7:40:51 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: C19fan

The party that claims to be the party of technology apparently is lying about that claim as well. This is like their 6th failure, with ACA (Affordable Care Act) being their biggest failure. I’m just sure the press will humiliate and expose the Democrats for the fraud they are now. 8>)


6 posted on 02/06/2020 7:41:09 AM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: C19fan

Hillary could be behind this whole mess. From the link below (and notice we’re talking staffers, not just donors):

“Tech firm Shadow, Inc., which created the technology for the Iowa caucuses that completely failed, is headed up by a number of former Hillary for America staffers.“

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2020/02/04/shadow-hillary-staffers-n2560675


7 posted on 02/06/2020 7:42:35 AM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: C19fan
It involves our old friend, George Soros...

IMG-2320
8 posted on 02/06/2020 7:43:42 AM PST by reintarnation (not a noob, i just change my identity over the years...)
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To: C19fan

This bunch is active in at least 35 other states...


9 posted on 02/06/2020 7:44:51 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Robert DeLong

Any app is only as secure as the morals of the people behind it. No integrity, noway.


10 posted on 02/06/2020 7:46:14 AM PST by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
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To: C19fan
This is the App that broke Iowa: THE INCOMPETENT DEMOCRAT PARTY!
11 posted on 02/06/2020 7:47:30 AM PST by Savage Beast (George Orwell's 1984 nightmare is the Democrats' Dream.)
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To: C19fan

they could have just use a shared spreadsheet where every precinct was a row or whatever, you just add your counts to the row and done.


12 posted on 02/06/2020 7:47:49 AM PST by Karma_Sherab
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To: C19fan

Just a glimpse into how “Medicare for All” will work.


13 posted on 02/06/2020 7:49:01 AM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: C19fan

One tweets sums it up perfectly:

“Can we be honest here? This is exactly what happens when a couple of powerpoint jockeys from a losing 2016 campaign decide they’re now Silicon Valley superbrains and use connections to force the beta version of the first app they’ve ever dreamed up on an unwilling customer”


14 posted on 02/06/2020 7:52:31 AM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: C19fan

15 posted on 02/06/2020 7:52:48 AM PST by Manic_Episode (Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps...)
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To: C19fan

$63k from what I saw.

It is ObamaCare scaled down.

Using Obsolete API’s and protocols.

Sounds like a few people who took a few computer classes in college 5 years ago decided to do this.


16 posted on 02/06/2020 7:54:54 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie (All I know is The I read in the papers.)
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To: reintarnation

Millions for an app that didn’t work, yet grocery stores come out with apps for on-line shopping and delivery. Wonder where all the money really went.


17 posted on 02/06/2020 8:06:48 AM PST by RetiredTexasVet
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

It sounds like $63k is WAAAY overpriced for the work done.

More Dem self-dealing to cronies.


18 posted on 02/06/2020 8:17:17 AM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

Some Dems are not able to code properly?? Bwhahahahaha!


19 posted on 02/06/2020 8:31:22 AM PST by originalbuckeye ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'- George Orwell..?)
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To: originalbuckeye

Someone ought to repost that meme of a software\app company that had 6 “woke” employees who did “woke” things and one employee (white guy” who actually coded.


20 posted on 02/06/2020 8:42:31 AM PST by Reily
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