More Diebold Fun!

[Dig]

Diebold voting machines can be beaten with a switch-flip
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/31/diebold-voting-machi.html
Posted by Cory Doctorow, July 31, 2006 11:07 AM | permalink

Diebold's voting machines are even less secure than previously suspected. Inspection of a Diebold machine by the open Voting Foundation revealed that all it takes to get a Diebold machine to boot a modified, crooked operating system is the flip of a switch, a task that can be accomplished in a brief moment using nothing but a screwdriver. Diebold has strenuously resisted calls for its voting machines to be fitted with paper audit-tapes that would record the votes cast for comparison against the electronic tally, and has used legal threats to keep critics from publishing memos detailing earlier flaws discovered in its machines. If you want to steal an election, use a Diebold machine.
Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside, the machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and certified version.

"Diebold has made the testing and certification process practically irrelevant," according to Dechert. "If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS -- and it could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver." This model does not produce a voter verified paper trail so there is no way to check if the voter's choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation.

[Dig]

Diebold voting machines opened with hotel minibar key
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/18/diebold-voting-machi.html
Posted by Cory Doctorow, September 18, 2006 6:18 AM | permalink

The key that controls access to a standard Diebold voting machine is a common key that can be ordered from the Internet, also used to open hotel minibars.
The access panel door on a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine — the door that protects the memory card that stores the votes, and is the main barrier to the injection of a virus — can be opened with a standard key that is widely available on the Internet...

Using such a standard key doesn’t provide much security, but it does allow Diebold to assert that their design uses a lock and key. Experts will recognize the same problem in Diebold’s use of encryption — they can say they use encryption, but they use it in a way that neutralizes its security benefits.

The bad guys don’t care whether you use encryption; they care whether they can read and modify your data. They don’t care whether your door has a lock on it; they care whether they can get it open. The checkbox approach to security works in press releases, but it doesn’t work in the field.

[Dig]

Princeton researchers show how to steal an election with Diebold machines
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/13/princeton-researcher.html
Posted by Cory Doctorow, September 13, 2006 9:22 AM | permalink

Princeton security researchers Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman, and Edward W. Felten have taken apart one of Diebold's notorious voting machines and done a thorough security analysis of its workings. They showed that they could easily install software on the machine that would allow an attacker to steal votes from one candidate and give them to another -- they showed that this would be undetectable, and easily done. They've published a paper and an amazing, disturbing video showing how this could be done.
This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software. We obtained the machine from a private party. Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks. For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities--a voting-machine virus. We have constructed working demonstrations of these attacks in our lab. Mitigating these threats will require changes to the voting machine's hardware and software and the adoption of more rigorous election procedures.
Diebold insists that their machines are secure, and that they don't need voter-verified paper audit-tapes that keep a real-time log of the votes cast -- but this latest attack, which requires only a few minutes to execute, shows that America's votes should not be run on Diebold hardware.

EFF has done amazing work in fighting Diebold at standards bodies, in courts, and in the press, working to ensure that American elections aren't overturned by bad code and greed.

Link, Link to EFF's Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc. case notes (Thanks, Chris!)

[Dig]

Diebold voting machine key copied from pic on Diebold site
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/25/diebold-voting-machi.html
Posted by Xeni Jardin, January 25, 2007 7:19 AM | permalink

BoingBoing reader Sejin says,
In another stunning blow to the security and integrity of Diebold's electronic voting machines, someone has made a copy of the key which opens ALL Diebold e-voting machines from a picture on the company's own website. The working keys were confirmed by Princeton scientists, the same people who discovered that a simple virus hack on the Diebold machines could steal an election. Absolutely incredible and another example of how Diebold's e-voting machines pose a great threat to the electoral process.
Link. (thanks to everyone who suggested this)

[Dig]

Diebold voting machines can be 0wned in minutes
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/11/diebold-voting-machi.html
Posted by Cory Doctorow, May 11, 2006 11:11 PM | permalink

Diebold's notoriously insecure voting machines -- in use across the USA -- have been found to have an even deeper vulnerability than previously known. A new report by Harri Hursti, released on BlackBoxVoting, documents how an attacker with a few moments' of private physical access to a machine could compromise it and load it with his own software, compromising every function of the machine, including the ability to count votes.

Ed Felten and Avi Rubin have written an excellent summary and analysis of the Hursti paper and published it on Freedom to Tinker -- if you care about whether you vote gets counted in 2006, read this now.
Hursti’s findings suggest the possibililty of other attacks, not described in his report, that are even more worrisome.

In addition, compromised machines would be very difficult to detect or to repair. The normal procedure for installing software updates on the machines could not be trusted, because malicious code could cause that procedure to report success, without actually installing any updates. A technician who tried to update the machine’s software would be misled into thinking the update had been installed, when it actually had not.

On election day, malicious software could refuse to function, or it could silently miscount votes.
Link

[Dig]

Quote of the Day: Diebold CEO promises Ohio to Bush
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/11/03/quote-of-the-day-die.html
Posted by Xeni Jardin, November 3, 2004 7:27 PM | permalink

In a fall 2003 fundraising letter sent to Republicans, from Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell:
"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president."
E-voting machine maker Diebold is based in North Canton, Ohio. Via earlier news items published mid-2004 by CNN, CBS, Mother Jones, and others.

[Dig]

OMFG-India's voting machines actually protect the vote 1,000x more than Diebod, wow, what a concept:

http://techaos.blogspot.com/2004/05/indian-evm-compared-with-diebold.html

[larsonstdoc]

        SANE,  1000X BETTER THAN DIEBOLD, I STILL DON'T TRUST THEM!

        FIGURES LIE AND LIARS FIGURE.

        HAND COUNT WITH CITIZENS WATCHING AND VERIFYING AND VIDEO TAPING

[bennyxbo]

Again, how hard is it to hand count 1000 - 2000 ballots ( average per precinct )

The whole idea of voting machines is beyond insane.

[Dig]

Again, how hard is it to hand count 1000 - 2000 ballots ( average per precinct )

The whole idea of voting machines is beyond insane.

I think you are missing the point.

Rockefeller has not mandated voting machines because they are easier.  He mandated them because they are more efficient for fixing elections.  Slowly our dictator is revealing himself.  This is more important than any election.  This is the past 100 years of tyranny exposing itself.  They so f-d up in New Hampshire.

[bilfur]

I have never seen a job application that doesn't ask the question have you ever been convicted of a Felony crime.  Why in the world would a corporation hire a person without checking has background.  Bill

[bennyxbo]

I think you are missing the point.

Rockefeller has not mandated voting machines because they are easier.  He mandated them because they are more efficient for fixing elections.  Slowly our dictator is revealing himself.  This is more important than any election.  This is the past 100 years of tyranny exposing itself.  They so f-d up in New Hampshire.

no exactly, thats what I mean. How could a population be sold on the idea of voting machines... apathy i guess. Ron Paul cured my apathy

[Pupil]

I was at an ATM at my bank last night.  I just happened to glance at the manufacturer's logo, and it was Diebold.  I'd forgotten that they make ATM's as well. I wonder how trustworthy those are, eh?

[Dig]

I have never seen a job application that doesn't ask the question have you ever been convicted of a Felony crime.  Why in the world would a corporation hire a person without checking has background.  Bill

?

America destroyed by design

Drug trafficers are in the highest positions. (Clinton/Bush/Rockefeller)

What do you think we are doing in Afghanistan?

[ekt8750]

I was at an ATM at my bank last night.  I just happened to glance at the manufacturer's logo, and it was Diebold.  I'd forgotten that they make ATM's as well. I wonder how trustworthy those are, eh?

They are even more crooked than the voting machines.

[Kregener]

[Dig]

Wow, that is a powerful poster!

[Sub-X]

It's not only Diebold system's that have hacking problems.

E-voting machines successfully hacked 
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single7158
Dublin: 10.01.2008 21:43PM

IT specialists in Holland have hacked the Nedap e-voting machines, the same type of machines purchased by the Irish Government, using only documentation obtained from the Irish Department of the Environment, it has emerged.

The recently formed Dutch anti e-voting group, ‘Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet’ (We don't trust voting computers), revealed on national Dutch television that they have successfully hacked the Nedap machines.

Lobby group Irish Citizens for Trustworthy E-voting (ICTE) has said the development shows that the concerns expressed by many IT professionals in Ireland about the security of the e-voting system chosen for use in Ireland were well-founded.


‘Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet’ showed that the e-voting machines could be secretly hacked, made to record inaccurate voting preferences and could even be secretly reprogrammed to run a chess program.


(Rest of the article in above link)