Voting machines hacked

Republicans often complain about vote fraud, but not one ever pipes up about how easy it is to hack into the electronic voting machines being put in all over the country. Curious isn't it?

They worry about a handful of people voting in our state that shouldn't, but don't worry that the entire vote can be compromised by someone who can pick a small lock and download a program. A new report out illustrates how easy it was for a group of graduate students to do this.

Felten and graduate students Ariel Feldman and Alex Halderman found that malicious programs could be placed on the Diebold by accessing the memory card slot and power button, both behind a locked door on the side of the machine. One member of the group was able to pick the lock in 10 seconds, and software could be installed in less than a minute, according to the report.

And they could do a lot of damage in that minute.

The researchers say they designed software capable of modifying all records, audit logs and counters kept by the voting machine, ensuring that a careful forensic examination would find nothing wrong.

The programs were able to modify vote totals or cause machines to break down, something that could alter the course of an election if machines were located in crucial polling stations.

It was also possible to design a computer virus to spread malicious programs to multiple machines by piggybacking on a new software download or an election information file being transferred from machine to machine, Felten said.

If the Republicans were really worried about an accurate voting process, they would be pounding the tables demanding something better than the machines that are being used now. Of course, a hardcore Republican manufactures and sells many of the machines so chances are the Republicans know they can be the last ones in the machines to put together the vote totals they want to see.

You can find the rest of the story here.