Hacking e-voting machines can be hard, Diebold shows you how

You know, we could almost admire Diebold's "in face of all odds" kind of determination to ignore the haters and continue to assert that its e-voting machines are secure -- but this is just taking it too far. Alex Halderman, who was part of a team that discovered Diebold was using a rather standard sort of hotel mini-bar key to "secure" its machines from tampering, has pointed out that Diebold is showing vote-tampering wannabes just how it's done. Halderman and company refrained from posting images of the actual key, just to deter any casual voting hax0rs out there, but Diebold one-upped 'em all by posting pictures loud and proud of the keys on its own website. You have to be a Diebold account holder to actually buy one, but anyone could copy the key design from the pic -- which sounded like a great idea to Ross, who made three homemade keys based on the online pics, two of which worked to unlock the Diebold machine. Care to comment, Diebold? Oh, that's right, you're doing that whole quiet, dignified thing. As an aside, up to one-third of the e-voting machines which were used widely in the Brazilian elections in October last year showed signs of manipulation, with all sorts of number disparities and obvious fraud or malfunction. Those poor e-voting machines just can't catch a break. Check out a video of this latest Diebold hacking after the break.

Read - Diebold reveals e-voting keys
Read - E-vote fraud runs rampant in Brazil

[s i d @ Jan 25th 2007 6:57PM]

u can't awake a person faking the sleep .... ignorance the choice of thee

[Reality Check @ Jan 25th 2007 7:16PM]

e-voting is a horrible idea for this exact reason. A dedicated team of individuals with enough computer savvy could turn an election.

[Tom Reinke @ Jan 25th 2007 8:09PM]

I would like to go back to regular voting please.

[NeoteriX @ Jan 25th 2007 8:15PM]

The point you're missing here is that, you don't even NEED computer saavy.

[jimimac @ Jan 25th 2007 9:26PM]

hmmmmm will those keys work ont e Diebold ATM machines too?

[jdclarke @ Jan 25th 2007 10:03PM]

Plus, the Brazilian voting machines are made by a company called Procomp, which -funny enough- was bought in 1999 by... Diebold.

[Rafael Oliveira @ Jan 25th 2007 11:30PM]

Just to add, as a Brazilian, there are some mistakes in that statement... 1/3 of the machines of *one particular state, Alagoas* were showing signs of manipulation. Not to say it couldn't have spread to the whole, but I doubt it. Alagoas is a very poor state, and has had voting fraud about forever. Paper ballot, e-voting, nothing will help there.
Again, not to say our voting machines are perfect (far from it) but in any case it is way easier to audit e-voting than paper ballots. And as voting is mandatory in Brazil, I would guess the results kinda even out.

[Dean Lowe @ Jan 25th 2007 11:35PM]

Pencil and paper would be a lot easier and cheaper and likely more accurate. Maybe some things shouldn't be electronic.

[crescentdavid @ Jan 26th 2007 3:32AM]

Diebold has heavy connections to the republican party. This is documented beyond dispute. Diebold has consistently demonstrated an incapability, an unwillingness and an overall incompetence in providing a secure voting machine, a secure, software integrity audit, or any responsiveness to a slew of demonstrable insecurities in their system.

And still they're in business. And still politicians and pundits pretend they're secure. No matter how blatant their lies, evasions, cover-ups and incompetence becomes.

Truly, it is time to destroy these machines. That's right- destroy them. Sabotage them. Render them unuseable. We have enough liquids, glues, and quick acting epoxies to cripple these machines and MAKE our unresponsive politicians listen.

Being polite, being civil, being "reasonable" has done NOTHING. It's time to shut Diebold down. It's cheap, it's easy and it's possible to do without being caught.

[Matt @ Jan 26th 2007 5:23AM]

Who hired these clowns anyway?

[Dan @ Jan 26th 2007 5:43AM]

Oh Diebold, whatever next?

The pen is indeed mightier than the shoddy, insecure, yet widely used e-voting machine...

[The King of Pants @ Jan 26th 2007 9:12AM]

Ha! The place I used to work at used exactly that type of lock on the cash drawer. My first week there I pointed out it wasn't the most secure. When they pooh pooh'ed me I grabbed a paper clip off the desk, bent it, and opened the lock in under 2 seconds. Got a new lock the next day.

[Assbestos @ Jan 26th 2007 10:08AM]

Umm, I think the question is what would your motives be in using a machine known to be prone to tampering or malfunction? Hmm, maybe you could manipulate the results of an election and if scrutiny was placed upon you for your nefarious actions you would have a direction to deflect criticism. Does that sound about right?

[Jeff @ Jan 26th 2007 11:11AM]

I understand everyones issues - my question is how does access to the battery and printer ports make the machine easily hacked?

[Stephan @ Jan 26th 2007 12:54PM]

Why does everyone bring up the presidential election don't you know we don't even vote for the president? Ever hear of the electoral college?

[Devon @ Jan 26th 2007 1:04PM]

Listen,

America went to electronic voting for all the wrong reasons by the wrong people. The practical upshot of this mess is the fact that elections are now and will continue to be up for grabs by the highest bidder for "electronic services." I'm sorry, that was the P.C. term. I meant "hackers."

Welcome to the world, Chummer.

[Bill @ Jan 27th 2007 10:11PM]

Did you guys forget about the south Florida mess? paper more accurate HAHA. There is corruption every election, I wonder how many dead people voted in the last presidential election or how many people voted multiple times. The security around our elections in a joke, electronic or paper you can cheat and people do. But this key mess is a bit silly why doesn't Diebold just remove there crappy locks and make a nice little spot for a standard master lock?

[Fabio @ Feb 10th 2007 7:26PM]

Rafael Oliveira is completely right, there is a mistake regarding that information about 1/3 brazilian e-voting machines showing signs of manipulation. I agree that the system isn't perfect and having a manipulation-proof system in Alagoas and other states are quite hard. It's being said that they are already dealing with the problem... In my opinion fraud with regular voting system is quite easy anyway and the technology don't have room to develop further. On the other hand e-vote can improve a lot, despite the results getting out a lot faster.

Regards.