As reported today on
slashdot, the blog of security export
Bruce Schneier, and also
Inside Bay Area... there appears to be a critically glaring security hole in Diebold touch-screen voting machines.
This is a hole big enough to drive a truck through and ripe for rampant vote fraud... and, has apparently been there the whole time!
My apologies for the "drive-by diary"... but, I'm at work and have lots to do. I'll delete if this is a dupe.
Here are a few juicy snippets fro the article:
Armed with a little basic knowledge of Diebold voting systems and a standard component available at any computer store, someone with a minute or two of access to a Diebold touch screen could load virtually any software into the machine and disable it, redistribute votes or alter its performance in myriad ways.
"In the other ones, we've been arguing about the security of the locks on the front door," Jones said. "Now we find that there's no back door. This is the kind of thing where if the states don't get out in front of the hackers, there's a real threat."
Scientists said Diebold appeared to have opened the hole by making it as easy as possible to upgrade the software inside its machines. The result, said Iowa's Jones, is a violation of federal voting system rules.
Please go read the full text linked above.