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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 29 2020, @04:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the do-the-candidates-count? dept.

HBO's 'Kill Chain' doc highlights the flaws in US election machines:

While COVID-19 might be putting just about everything else on hold, we're still marching towards a presidential election later this year. After the high-profile interference of 2016, election security and foreign meddling are still critical issues, but many states still aren't doing enough to ensure the integrity of the process. A documentary premiering tonight on HBO proves a sobering reminder of the fragility of America's voting infrastructure.

While the matter is of grave concern across the country, Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America's Elections delves into problems with some specific machines and issues in certain states. For instance, back in 2005, security researcher Harri Hursti (a key figure in the film) demonstrated a memory card exploit that could alter votes on an optical scan voting machine. Those Diebold machines are still in operation in 20 states and are slated for use in November, the filmmakers note.

Elsewhere, a judge banned Georgia from continuing to use the vulnerable systems it had in place for well over a decade. In the wake of the contentious 2018 gubernatorial election, officials had new machines in place for this month's presidential primary. While the replacements can print paper ballots, which are important for proper vote auditing, they're still very much vulnerable as they run on Windows 7 -- for which Microsoft recently ended support.

We also hear from an Indian hacker who says he was able to gain full access to Alaska's system, including live voting data, during the 2016 presidential election. He claims he'd have been able to remove a candidate from the ballot or change any vote, but decided not to for fear of triggering some kind of alarm.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Sunday March 29 2020, @05:19AM (3 children)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Sunday March 29 2020, @05:19AM (#976851)

    It's been known these things are very vulnerable from day 1, and there has been a ton of speculation Diebold deliberately borked the security. Not only did anyone in tech that was in tech for anything but the money know it, but you have to assume the leaders of both parties, not to mention the 1%'ers, all knew about it also. One also has to assume those latter categories figured they could hack the results better than their opponents.

    Maybe this documentary will wake the sheep up, especially as they have nothing to do all day but watch TV. I'm doubtful, but hopeful.

    Remember, for the first time in history we can save the human race by laying on the couch watching TV. Want to bet we screw it up?

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    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by canopic jug on Sunday March 29 2020, @05:37AM

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 29 2020, @05:37AM (#976860) Journal

    I admire the optimism. Maybe this time in 2000^w 2004^w 2008^w 2016^w 2020 people will come to their senses and stand up and demand a return to open and fair elections [osce.org] through the removal of both those fraudulent devices and their backers in the oligarchy [rollingstone.com].

    However, more and more it appears that the voting is just theatrics and the oligarchy is being left behind anyway as the era of kakistocracy arrived a while back. It's going to require a mighty big shovel to clean out that stable.

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    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday March 29 2020, @01:19PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Sunday March 29 2020, @01:19PM (#976914)

    I'm pretty sure it won't wake anybody up, or tip any scales. And here's why: The party that controls most of the government is quite clear in its internal documents that if there's a free and fair election, they lose. So they're using all the power they have to make damn sure there isn't one. And because election shenanigans make it so they no longer have to answer to the people in any meaningful way, they don't care how it looks. (Yes, the other major party has done these kinds of things at state and local levels, but right now they're the ones supporting greater election security and it's the guys in power who are opposing it.)

    You might be wondering: If that's been going on for over a decade now, why do they even bother campaigning and such? And the answer is to convince the rubes that think it's still the Party of Eisenhower versus the Party of Kennedy that nothing fishy is going on.

    Vote anyways, because it skews exit polls and makes it harder to look like it's legitimate, but don't expect your vote to change anything.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 30 2020, @03:45PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 30 2020, @03:45PM (#977249) Journal

    Electronic voting will be the end of democracy while preserving an illusion of democracy. Now that's innovation.

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    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.