Monkey Changes Election Results

[annuin]

And no, that's not a pun on Dubya.

Apparantly Diebold's voting machines can be hacked, by a monkey, or any other person with virtually no computer skills. Which of course makes it a lot easier for those people who do have skills to fiddle around with stuff.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133214,00.html

Comments

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Yep - they've been talking about this for at least a year, probably more. There are so many leaked internal company memos about the security holes it's just not funny, plus all the industry and independent studies have shown how vulnerable the system is. Going to be an interesting November.

[trejkaz.livejournal.com]

The Australian system is probably going the same way.

It started off as open source, and soaked up all the media attention. After obtaining comments and bugfixes from the community, then they closed the source off and told the community to fuck off. In a year we'll be having the same kind of story show up, when someone finds a vulnerability that would have been fixed if only they hadn't closed it.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Were their widdle feelings all hurt by people sending in bugfixes and critiques?

I don't get that attitude. You would think for a system as important as vote counting they'd want to make it as secure as possible and get as much input on it as they can from people all over. Sometimes it's others who see things with fresh eyes that those who've worked on it for ages don't.

Plus open source just has the benefit of it being "transparent", anyone with a mind to do so can see how the program works, and it instills more trust. At least it would for me. You can't hide much if the source is publically viewable.

[trejkaz.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I imagine that someone would spot the LiberalVotes++ in only a few minutes of quick browsing of the source code. Now, no such thing. If they start implementing the system outside of Canberra you can be sure there will be complaints...

[daskreestof.livejournal.com]

How can anyone believe that something microsoft would be secure, and not republican leaning?

Don't be suprised if neither bush nor kerry win, but some how Bill Gates takes in a landslide victory.