Post by whatever on Nov 4, 2004 9:44:59 GMT -5
Check out this site, if it hasn't been mentioned already :)
www.blackboxvoting.org
an' this one History of vote-rigging Chapter 04
- Electronic vote-tampering Chapter 06
The link for that document is broken, so I tried changing the name and it came up.
Here's some of the beginning of the one on cyber tampering:
Cyber-Boss Tweed 37
This free internet version is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org
5
Cyber-Boss Tweed
21st Century Ballot-Tampering Techniques
With old-style voting systems, for the most part, no special training was needed to realize something was amiss. Not so with rigging computers, but many public officials don’t understand this.
“Subverting elections would be extremely unlikely and staggeringly difficult,” said Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox when interviewed about Georgia’s touch-screen voting system. “It would take a conspiracy beyond belief of all these different poll workers. … I don’t see how this could happen in the real world.” 1
My premise, though, is this: An insider, someone with access, can plant malicious computer code without getting caught. Just as we know that banks will have robbers, that blackjack tables will have card-counters and that embezzlers will slip in amongst the beancounters, so we should expect to find a few ethically challenged individuals among the honorable programmers and technicians who work with our voting machines.
Certainly, human nature did not change just because we entered the age of computers. Sooner or later, someone’s going to try to steal votes on these things.
What kind of cheaters are we looking for? Candidates may not be the most likely people to cheat. Few candidates are likely to possess the combination of motive and cash to rig their own election. I believe that vested interests behind the candidate are more likely suspects, and the candidate need not even know.
Zealots are a bigger danger, especially if they happen to be connected to people with giant wallets. “True believers” may feel that the end justifies any means. Some are very wealthy, and some congregate in radical groups where they can pool their cash and push their agenda. Zealots of any kind may believe they are “helping” the rest of us by imposing their candidates on us. You do not need to hand a zealot a bribe, and the candidate they select never needs to know his election was rigged.
Gambling interests may not be squeamish about pulling strings. Gambling rights have turned into a brawl, with some tough players who are seeking riverboat gambling rights, the right to compete with Native American casinos and just plain liberalized and legalized gambling in communities all over the world.
Hackers, more accurately called “crackers,” get their kicks by compromising legitimate software systems. These people may not need bribe money or a cause; like climbing a mountain, they just want to see if they can do it.
Profiteers can make billions by putting the right candidate into office. Electronic voting systems give a small number of people access to a great number of votes. If you control the counting software, ballot-tampering on a massive scale is possible. We should expect this to attract the all-star players. In the old days, a city boss might want a particular candidate to win, perhaps throw a few construction contracts his way, take a kickback.
But high-volume tampering provides a motive for a different clientele. Defense contractors stand to make billions with the right candidate.Oil companies benefit from new pipelines all over the world, if they select candidates likely to vote for open exploration and geopolitically strategic development.
Highway contractors garner hundreds of millions on freeway and bridge projects. Global financiers gain power and profit when international trade policies are set up to favor their interests. Pharmaceutical companies want legislative protection for pricing policies and product patenting and protection from international competition. Investment holding companies stand to gain control over privatized retirement and pension funds.
* * * * *
So much to spend, so few techies to corrupt. Where to begin?
Well, for starters, you could send your own compromised programmer into a voting machine company toting a resume. But suppose I am a political operative for a wealthy and powerful, but crooked, corporation, and I just want to buy off an employee. How would I find and contact an employee, and how would I know whom to approach?
I set out to answer that question. I figured that if a middle-aged woman like me who has never done a “covert op” in her life, working on the Internet, could find the people who program our voting machines, then certainly the bad guys must know who they are. You can find software engineers who once worked for voting machine companies by looking at online resumes and job-search sites. The resumes often have home phone numbers. You can call them up, say you are writing an article and ask them how a machine can be rigged. And they will tell you. I know this because I did it.
You will find software engineers who currently work for voting machine companies by finding any company e-mail address. ES&S employees have e-mail addresses that end in “essvote.com.” Enter “essvote” in a search engine, and you’ll find people who submitted information to high-school reunion sites and programmers who post comments on forums, join listservs, create personal Web pages and post their wedding plans on the Internet. One guy even listed his hobbies and his favorite vacation spots.
I located eight dozen voting-company employees this way. I also found the home phone number for someone in human resources at ES&S, who in turn has access to contact information, including the home phone number, for every single employee. This took three hours. How would you choose someone to approach?
For $80 you can run a background check. That will give you a person’s Social Security number, which opens up more information. You can also run a credit check. Doing this, you find out if the programmer has a gambling problem, has gotten into credit-card debt, is over her head in student loans, has had run-ins with the law, likes fancy cars, is overcommitted on a mortgage. Additional searches reveal political affiliations and even lead you to people who are disgruntled or believe they will soon be fired.
Black Box Voting 40
Black Box Voting © 2004 Bev Harris • ISBN 1-890916-90-0
This free internet version is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org#nosmileys
www.blackboxvoting.org
an' this one History of vote-rigging Chapter 04
- Electronic vote-tampering Chapter 06
The link for that document is broken, so I tried changing the name and it came up.
Here's some of the beginning of the one on cyber tampering:
Cyber-Boss Tweed 37
This free internet version is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org
5
Cyber-Boss Tweed
21st Century Ballot-Tampering Techniques
With old-style voting systems, for the most part, no special training was needed to realize something was amiss. Not so with rigging computers, but many public officials don’t understand this.
“Subverting elections would be extremely unlikely and staggeringly difficult,” said Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox when interviewed about Georgia’s touch-screen voting system. “It would take a conspiracy beyond belief of all these different poll workers. … I don’t see how this could happen in the real world.” 1
My premise, though, is this: An insider, someone with access, can plant malicious computer code without getting caught. Just as we know that banks will have robbers, that blackjack tables will have card-counters and that embezzlers will slip in amongst the beancounters, so we should expect to find a few ethically challenged individuals among the honorable programmers and technicians who work with our voting machines.
Certainly, human nature did not change just because we entered the age of computers. Sooner or later, someone’s going to try to steal votes on these things.
What kind of cheaters are we looking for? Candidates may not be the most likely people to cheat. Few candidates are likely to possess the combination of motive and cash to rig their own election. I believe that vested interests behind the candidate are more likely suspects, and the candidate need not even know.
Zealots are a bigger danger, especially if they happen to be connected to people with giant wallets. “True believers” may feel that the end justifies any means. Some are very wealthy, and some congregate in radical groups where they can pool their cash and push their agenda. Zealots of any kind may believe they are “helping” the rest of us by imposing their candidates on us. You do not need to hand a zealot a bribe, and the candidate they select never needs to know his election was rigged.
Gambling interests may not be squeamish about pulling strings. Gambling rights have turned into a brawl, with some tough players who are seeking riverboat gambling rights, the right to compete with Native American casinos and just plain liberalized and legalized gambling in communities all over the world.
Hackers, more accurately called “crackers,” get their kicks by compromising legitimate software systems. These people may not need bribe money or a cause; like climbing a mountain, they just want to see if they can do it.
Profiteers can make billions by putting the right candidate into office. Electronic voting systems give a small number of people access to a great number of votes. If you control the counting software, ballot-tampering on a massive scale is possible. We should expect this to attract the all-star players. In the old days, a city boss might want a particular candidate to win, perhaps throw a few construction contracts his way, take a kickback.
But high-volume tampering provides a motive for a different clientele. Defense contractors stand to make billions with the right candidate.Oil companies benefit from new pipelines all over the world, if they select candidates likely to vote for open exploration and geopolitically strategic development.
Highway contractors garner hundreds of millions on freeway and bridge projects. Global financiers gain power and profit when international trade policies are set up to favor their interests. Pharmaceutical companies want legislative protection for pricing policies and product patenting and protection from international competition. Investment holding companies stand to gain control over privatized retirement and pension funds.
* * * * *
So much to spend, so few techies to corrupt. Where to begin?
Well, for starters, you could send your own compromised programmer into a voting machine company toting a resume. But suppose I am a political operative for a wealthy and powerful, but crooked, corporation, and I just want to buy off an employee. How would I find and contact an employee, and how would I know whom to approach?
I set out to answer that question. I figured that if a middle-aged woman like me who has never done a “covert op” in her life, working on the Internet, could find the people who program our voting machines, then certainly the bad guys must know who they are. You can find software engineers who once worked for voting machine companies by looking at online resumes and job-search sites. The resumes often have home phone numbers. You can call them up, say you are writing an article and ask them how a machine can be rigged. And they will tell you. I know this because I did it.
You will find software engineers who currently work for voting machine companies by finding any company e-mail address. ES&S employees have e-mail addresses that end in “essvote.com.” Enter “essvote” in a search engine, and you’ll find people who submitted information to high-school reunion sites and programmers who post comments on forums, join listservs, create personal Web pages and post their wedding plans on the Internet. One guy even listed his hobbies and his favorite vacation spots.
I located eight dozen voting-company employees this way. I also found the home phone number for someone in human resources at ES&S, who in turn has access to contact information, including the home phone number, for every single employee. This took three hours. How would you choose someone to approach?
For $80 you can run a background check. That will give you a person’s Social Security number, which opens up more information. You can also run a credit check. Doing this, you find out if the programmer has a gambling problem, has gotten into credit-card debt, is over her head in student loans, has had run-ins with the law, likes fancy cars, is overcommitted on a mortgage. Additional searches reveal political affiliations and even lead you to people who are disgruntled or believe they will soon be fired.
Black Box Voting 40
Black Box Voting © 2004 Bev Harris • ISBN 1-890916-90-0
This free internet version is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org
...when he's around