Submission + - Diebold's e-voting software found vulnerable again
Futurepower(R) writes: "A new report commissioned by the Florida Department of State says, 'A flaw in the optical scan software, for example, enables a hacker to introduce an unofficial memory card into an active terminal before the polls open, according to the report. "This memory card can be preprogrammed to redistribute votes cast for selected candidates on that terminal, including swapping the votes for two candidates," it states.'
Reading that quote from a technically knowledgeable university researcher in a TechNewsWorld article, you might think that changes will be made. But the non-technical press sometimes reports e-voting vulnerabilities very differently.
For example, in this Associated Press article in a business publication, the non-technical press accepts a response from a 'spokeswoman' that changes the subject to 'voting system reliability', which includes hardware and other failures that don't affect the vote count. Sample quote from an article titled, Voting Machine Companies Attack Review, 'Voting system reliability is something we're always working at improving,' said Michelle Shafer, a Sequoia spokeswoman. 'Security is never finished.'"
Reading that quote from a technically knowledgeable university researcher in a TechNewsWorld article, you might think that changes will be made. But the non-technical press sometimes reports e-voting vulnerabilities very differently.
For example, in this Associated Press article in a business publication, the non-technical press accepts a response from a 'spokeswoman' that changes the subject to 'voting system reliability', which includes hardware and other failures that don't affect the vote count. Sample quote from an article titled, Voting Machine Companies Attack Review, 'Voting system reliability is something we're always working at improving,' said Michelle Shafer, a Sequoia spokeswoman. 'Security is never finished.'"
