back to article Default admin password, weak Wi-Fi, open USB ports ... no wonder these electronic voting boxes are now BANNED

The US state of Virginia is decommissioning a long-serving electronic voting system after learning of its gaping security holes. The state's Board of Elections was urged to decertify the Wi-Fi-connected Advanced Voting Systems WINVote system after the boxes were found to lack basic security measures against physical and …

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    1. Adam 1

      Re: That design is a travesty

      Identification and voting should not go through the same system. Also, you ideally need to share between identification systems whether a given voter has already cast a vote to prevent someone voting multiple times.

      Also, ss numbers alone are probably insufficient for authentication because they are guessable.

  1. phil dude
    Boffin

    public /private keys?

    So how about voting machine being an exercise in public key crypto?

    Voter enters booth, and selects candidate(s), this generates a unique key and they get a physical result with the key and a receipt for their vote ( a table , say). The vote is signed by the machine, and using the public key of some local neutral authority, and the key of the dynamic voter. Hence, corrupt officials can't change the vote without the voter and the specific machine.

    Therefore, the votes have receipts that can be checked if fraud is suspected. Anonymity is preserved.

    Voters will be able to go on line and check their vote hasn't changed (they get key generated on the receipt).

    Have I missed something?

    P.

    PS. and obviously this would be FOSS....

  2. Peter Brooks 1

    Brilliant anarchist joke!

    Who but an anarchist would show his contempt for voting by using Microsoft Windows as the software.

    It's lovely!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Brilliant anarchist joke!

      "Who but an anarchist would show his contempt for voting by using Microsoft Windows as the software."

      About 90% of desktops and 75% of servers according to Forbes...

  3. Bakana

    It's like that because everyone involved just Ignored the fact that, during the 2000 election, the CEO of Diebold was the State Chairman of the GW Bush Campaign and Declared Publicly and On the record that he would "Deliver Ohio" to Bush.

    AT a time when His Company was in charge of the "Care & Feeding" of all the Voting Computers in the state.

    AS far as "Hackability" was concerned, blackboxvoting.org at the time was able to demonstrate at least 5 Different ways to rig or alter the results using those machines.

    The Simplest one was the Memory Cards used to hold the vote totals.

    Wehn the Election first starts, the supervisor is supposed to run a "Zero Test" on the card to "Prove" that it is "Empty". It checks and all the Vote Totals are reported to be ZERO.

    What they discovered was that, if you entered 50 Votes for Candidate A and Minus 50 Votes for Candidate B on those memory cards, they would Pass the "Zero Test" because the Total Votes on the card added up to Zero.

    The only possible exposure would be a candidate who lost so badly that there would have been no Need to rig the votes in the first place.

    And, in subsequent elections in a few very small races, candidates DID "Lose" with Negative Vote totals after the elections.

    Voting officials brushed it off as "Computer Glitches".

  4. Tim Roberts 1

    Do not ...

    turn off or unplug your computer , it will turn off automatically ---- installing update 1 of 1

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