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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.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday March 29 2020, @06:10AM (1 child)
Yeah, and worse, it's yet another "Russian Hackers" story even though Israel, China, and our own intelligence agencies working with the two are our own worst enemies. If we wanted a workable voting system we would have goddamn had it already.
Also,
Well, no shit. Every last stinky one of those motherfuckers foreign and domestic has access to Microsoft source code, along with everybody else. Along with every Pajeet who refuses because of the threat of "alarm," just imagine how many get away with it, including the non-hacking by armies of Mexicans and Sephardic Jews pretending to be Mexicans voting on behalf of 130 year old people and the complete invalids.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday March 29 2020, @01:21PM
When it comes to election hacking, I find it very strange that so many pundits like to blame foreigners when the people with the means, motive, and opportunity to cheat are the US officials in charge of running the elections.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.