Responding to what they describe as “insufficient action”, and the general failure of state elections officials to take recommended security mitigation procedures seriously in light of newly-discovered vulnerabilities in Diebold touch-screen voting systems, election watchdog organization BlackBoxVoting.org (BBV) has issued a scathing report today.
The group has now released previously redacted information from their landmark Hursti II report [PDF, now unredacted] which documented the newly-discovered security issues found during a March 2006 examination of Diebold touch-screen systems in Emery County, UT. Carried out by Finnish computer scientist Harri Hursti and a security expert from Security Innovation, the information revealed by that security analysis has been described previously by BBV founder Bev Harris as “a major national security risk.”
Since we first broke that story here at The BRAD BLOG, dozens of computer scientists and security experts have concurred with the assessment. The issue was subsequently reported by mainstream media outlets such as New York Times, NEWSWEEK, NPR and others.
The updated report, issued today, releases information that had previously been kept under wraps due to the severity of the security issues potentially exposed. Describing insufficient reponse and lack of appropriate measures taken by states who had received the full unredacted information, BBV has decided to place the entirety of the information into “the public record.”
A host of previously unreported technical details, methods for possible attack of the Diebold touch-screen system, and a complete failure by federal authorities to oversee crucial aspects of the election system are explained in detail.
As well, today’s report slams elections officials for allowing Diebold voting machine “sleepovers” in San Diego and elsewhere, of the type which The BRAD BLOG has been reporting for the last three weeks in relation to the June 6th special election in San Diego’s 50th congressional district, held to replace the now-jailed Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham.
The violations to new state and federal laws and provisions written since some of the vulnerabilities have been revealed — and about which we have been reporting in detail — occurred when poll workers were allowed unfettered access to election-ready Diebold voting systems for days and weeks prior to the election. The unsecured storage of voting machines in poll workers’ cars and garages, so-called overnight “sleepovers”, has led The BRAD BLOG and several other election watchdog organizations, candidates and thousands of individuals to declare “NO CONFIDENCE” in the reported results of that “bellwether” federal election.
The CA-50 election between Francine Busby and Brian Bilbray was the first federal election to be held after the new discoveries, and after state and federal officials instituted new, apparently-ignored security provisions in hopes of mitigating them. A manual hand count of all paper ballots and “paper trails” has been demanded by many of the organizations decrying the administration of that election.
“In a sane world, these machines would be recalled,” wrote BBV…
Headlined “States and local jurisdictions did not take sufficient action to mitigate risks” the BBV announcement issued today takes elections officials to task, while explaining several of the previously redacted specifics of security threats on Diebold touch-screen (DRE) systems.
“Because public officials who have received the unredacted reports have failed to take this risk seriously and arrange for appropriate mitigations,” the statement says, “and because Black Box Voting believes this information is of critical public interest for pending litigation and citizen actions, we are releasing it publicly now.”
A summary of the newly released information, dozens of newly released photographs and the full unredacted Hursti II report are now available here.
In specific regard to the CA-50 Busby/Bilbray election matters we have been reporting here since June 6th, the BBV summary says the following:
So, are they saying that consumer protection laws are still in existence?
That is sooooo pre 9/11 … what … they think elections are more important than spreading demockrazy into the universe?
Flag burning traitors! Throw em in jail along with the NY Times!
On to Mars!!!
Thanks Brad, for your continuing outstanding coverage of important issues!
John
#2 Your name and your web page clash.
Hey you hackers out there, lets get Michael Moore elected to replace Joe Lieberman!
Leftwing Hackers vs Rightwing Hackers, no supreme court intervention this time!
Agent99, what do you mean by “your name and your web page clash?”
John
I mean, THE John Dean would never have a web page named “bozosrnot4bush”. Even as a conservative, Independent now, not Republican, he would definitely have to cede the point that only bozos ARE 4 bush. I didn’t look at your page. Maybe “bozos” means something else in your context. The name of the page says to me that you think only bozos don’t back *. (You’ve made me type that vile name enough already. Whenever you see me use “*”, I’m referring to that criminal occupying the White House, OUR HOUSE.)
That’s John’s actual name, 99. No, he’s not the John Dean from the Nixon Admin. But he is John Dean nonetheless.
Oh 99 do check out his site, I think you will be pleasantly suprised. It seems he has his very own MTTBBB mission!
The name is sarcastic.
Not John Dean – the Bozo name is the sarcastic one!
Hi Brad, when’d you get time to come around here? 🙂
Okay, boys. I will “man-up” and get over my aversion to clicking on anything that looks as if it might be right wing! Thanks.
Plus, I’m sorry John Dean, but my admiration for the other John Dean is such that I tend to give him top billing. I’m really proud of him. I was really proud of him at the time. He just took a deep breath and would not allow himself to lie to save face. THAT is true manhood… humanhood!
ET may phone home . . . . . Not voting machines . . . A modem inside ? ? ?
I can’t Help but wonder what # was programed into these machines – – – Proprietary Software Hmmmmm…
Okay, John Dean, I love your website, and you’ve risen notches on my little John Dean Ometer, but, uh, I still think your blog name is yucky, and I still think your name clashes with its name, but, wow, I’m glad I got over myself there, and over there myself, to look.
Thanks! 🙂
If one were to drive a nail through the heart of that computer chip, would a plain old nail work or does it need to be wood or silver or what?
Just wondering! 😉
How come G.(George) Gordon (Battle) Liddy and Oliver Laurence North never visit this website ?
what is the status of busby election, is there going to be a hand recount. All this talk and nothing seems to be happening. Please keep informed. thankyou teddy
I wonder if the John Dean, (of Nixon fame) is going to change his mind on the voting machines now that Kennedy is taking it into the courts. He said on C-SPAN, he thought they would be fine, but that may have been a lawyers, (very careful) point of view.
John Dean:
Good luck with the troll hunting. You provide a valuable service!
#14 gets it!
FACT: It would take ONE second to destroy ANY PART OF THE SYSTEM!!
FACT: And every inch of every mile can not be watched or validated every second, not even by GOD.
FACT: Electronic parts BURN up. The doping process is a flawed process, surely you’ve seen folks with iNTEL chip keychains of bad wafers. That’s because it’s an impure process, oh they try to create them in clean rooms, but it’s still imperfect, NO two chips are exactly the same.
FACT: A chip can be doped to have a logic bomb, or even become a radio controled logic bomb. You could burn out part of the circuit when you are finished with your dirty deed.
I didn’t think I had anything else to say on Bradblog about this matter. But looking at a couple photos and not seeing anyone else comment to these flaws, I HAVE TO!
I am really glad BBV released the photos. Personally I had no idea what was inside, under the covers with the #2 Phillips screws. I also don’t care if they use secure screws, they can still be removed, with security bits.
But seeing the photos, it only confirms what I already knew. I don’t need anymore education about electronics or programming to destroy any part of this system. (If allowed to legally of course.) But I am sure there are powerful influences out there that are willing to do this illegally. And when they get caught they get away with it, whereas if I was to tamper with a diebold machine it would be a felony. (three machines and life in prison in California eh)
NONE of these electronic machines, or digitized data, or networks can be validated.
You don’t need a PDA to snap off a crystal, or clip a trace on a logic chip. Bend a pin, leave a cannon plug dangling. If you recognise the chip name you could tweek the system even more radically. Piggy back soldering.
Why the entire nation doesn’t rise up and confront the Secretary of State every single day until these machines are gone and we are voting on paper without networks; can only be attributed to the ABC, CBS, NBS, FOX media blackout.
So perhaps you could deduce a new target, in addition to the local SOS of your local precint[s] that is, the media in your local towns. My advise is to flood them every day, and every day you see them stick signs in their faces, and always talk off topic of their current fluff story.
Better hurry though, since your about to loose public access, and net-neutrality, your ability to raise a stink is going to either be taken away or really really expensive.
Also now that I have seen these pictures, I wonder if these chips are even doped in the United States.
Or, Made in CHINA!
Bent pins, scratched traces, fried transistors, or specially crafted chips “MADE IN CHINA.”
Just wonderful.
Your vote can not be validated. Therefore it is lost invisibly, electricity is invisible, since it is invisible, you’ve lost your right to vote.
THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE ABUSE OF TECHNOLOGY.
YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF WHO ARE THE REAL ELECTED PEOPLE.
OH WAIT, THEY WERE NOT ELECTED.
Whoops my fingernail just accidentally scraped r55 off the mainboard. Nice stickers they put on to cover up the asic chip manufacture name and part numbers. I bet they work really well in a 120 degree enviornment.
Just for the un-initiated, any one of those chips on the motherboard with a U label could be “specially crafted” or tampered with. You wouldn’t know unless you had a specialist go through it with an electron microscope.
EXAMPLE: http://www.bbvdocs.org/diebold/...c-closeup2.JPG
U8, U10, U11, U22, U23, U24, U25 (I wonder how well they’d work if a trace was snapped), U40 (I wonder how well U40 would work if the edge was lifted up)
This might not be the argument BBV is making but is an argument *I* am making.
A cable with a needle stuck through to short it out should stop some votes.
Is X4 really a 14.745MHz Crystal?
RP42, RP41, I wonder what happens if you add an extra 103 resistor pack.
This is just one photo I decided to look at. I don’t need to see anymore.
It should be clear to anyone who decides to look.
I am sick an tired of people in charge of our communications, networks, and elections who don’t have an electronics background making decisions for us.
I also notice WILDCAT BBS docs on BBV. Didn’t I tell you on DU long ago that BBS’s have flaws. I ran several BBS’s, I found flaws, (In Spitfire BBS, ask Mike Woltz if Phil reported a flaw) I know! I helped fellow sysop lock his board down because of it.
THE FLAW LED TO TOTAL CONTROL OF HIS SYSTEM.
e.g. I called him up, said I found a flaw, and your board has it, watch, I will logon as sysop. And I did. and then I told him hot to fix it.
People websites are being defaced every day, databases are being stolen every day, what makes you think these god damned abusive boxes are any different? Cause a chip came from Texas Instruments? Come on. WHY SHOULD I LIE TO YOU?
I just want my god damned vote counted!