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Microsoft: Free Windows 7 security updates for 2020 election
Microsoft said Friday it will offer free security updates through the 2020 election in the United States—and in other interested democratic countries with national elections next year—for federally certified voting systems running on soon-to-be-outdated Windows 7 software.
An Associated Press analysis previously found that the vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions in the U.S. use Windows 7 or an older operating system to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts.
Windows 7 reaches its "end of life" on Jan. 14, meaning Microsoft stops providing free technical support and producing "patches" to fix software vulnerabilities, which hackers can exploit. Cash-strapped election officials are scrambling to address this issue and what's essentially a one-year extension on additional costs.
The promise of free updates does not address the cost of putting them in place or the time and cost of certifying such changes to a voting system. Fixing a new vulnerability requires that the companies resubmit the voting system for recertification, which can take weeks or even months.
At a U.S. Election Assistance Commission forum last month, Microsoft's Ginny Badanes, who heads its Defending Democracy Program, said that election administrators should not be forced to make the difficult choice of "using election systems with known vulnerabilities or applying security patches and, in so doing, taking their systems out of certification."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Saturday September 21 2019, @06:37PM (19 children)
How about fucking paper ballots instead?
Oh! I feel so very sorry. The tourette's is kicking in again...
But seriously, c'mon, people, just demand the superior solution and be done with it.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @06:47PM (8 children)
Only niggers use paper ballots because niggers live in poor nigger neighborhoods where they can't risk putting voting machines because everybody knows niggers would steal the voting machines.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @06:52PM (6 children)
Why you talk so bad about yo Big Black Daddy? Yo, nigga, yo mama likes a Big Black Nigga!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:03PM (5 children)
Why are you bragging about your own nigger rapist father, quantum mulatto boy?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:14PM (4 children)
admit you like that quantum jizz gushing down your throat white boy
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:22PM (3 children)
Your mother and your sisters snatch were gushing my jizz last night.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @10:08PM (2 children)
I wondered where the Anonymous Cowards from /. would go. Here, apparently.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @10:33PM (1 child)
I was able to log in with an old account and post as Anonymous on /. Are they fucking lazy or are new accounts unable to do it?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday September 22 2019, @01:53AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:27PM
You've got it backwards. They are the ones insisting that everything be electronic, because they love their cell phones, and electronic voting machines look like large cell phones.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday September 21 2019, @06:53PM (8 children)
No thanks- don't want paper cuts.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Gaaark on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:11PM (5 children)
and Chad says, "Hey! How's it hanging!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:16PM (2 children)
Punch ballots have been replaced by magnetic ink ballots. Thanks for trolling, troll.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:41PM (1 child)
The sad thing is many idiots genuinely do believe that just because some previous system had issues, it is still impossible to overcome and a completely different system is required.
It is the same sort of thinking that new white/beige computer cases MUST have sharp edges, or that devices without bright blue LEDs are somehow not as powerful.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:54PM
White computers have blue lights to stop niggers from stealing our computers. Niggers see the blue lights and are reminded of police cars and run away from the cops.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:40PM
Ba-dump-pssshhhh (that's my best drum rimshot).
And the answer is: in ribbons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @11:31PM
And Dimples replies, "one slightly lower than the other."
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Saturday September 21 2019, @07:11PM (1 child)
You gotta
*know how to hold 'em
know how to fold 'em*
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Funny) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Saturday September 21 2019, @11:33PM
You never count your ballots when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the cheatin's done.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @10:55PM
I suppose that could be amusing. However, I think the middle-aged and elderly women manning the check-in tables at my polling place might feel like they're being ignored. And that's just rude. As such, I restrict myself to legal pads in my home.
Not sure where you are, but we do have paper ballots where I vote. They are then scanned.
However, the paper ballots still exist and are used for manual recounts. If you don't have them where you live, then you need to elect folks who will implement them.