Chicago Voter Database Hacked "we could've wiped the entire database out"

[truthpusher]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2601085&page=1

Chicago Voter Database Hacked

Civic Group Claims It Could Have Tampered With Voter Roles
By JAKE TAPPER and REBECCA ABRAHAMS

Oct. 23, 2006 — - As if there weren't enough concerns about the integrity of the vote, a non-partisan civic organization today claimed it had hacked into the voter database for the 1.35 million voters in the city of Chicago.

Bob Wilson, an official with the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project -- which bills itself as a not-for-profit civic organization dedicated to the correction of election system deficiencies -- tells ABC News that last week his organization hacked the database, which contains detailed information about hundreds of thousands of Chicago voters, including their Social Security numbers, and dates of birth.

"It was a serious identity theft problem, but also a problem that could potentially create problems with the election," Wilson said.

A nefarious hacker could have changed every voter's status from active to inactive, which would have prevented them from voting, he said.

"Or we could've changed the information on what precinct you were in or what polling place you were supposed to go to," he said. "So there were ways that we could potentially change the entire online data base and disenfranchise voters throughout the entire city of Chicago."

"If we'd wanted to, we could've wiped the entire database out," Wilson claimed.



link: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2601085&page=1

[williesgirl]

1. Is there nothing that can't be tampered with regarding voting?

recommended

[Rebellious Republican]

2. Whoa, finally someone growing some balls, however I am sure

they will be smacked with a gag order and all data confiscated or something to that effect. You know, national security and all that. I am sure the DOJ will be on top of this,if they are not already. :yoiks:

[goforit]

3. I say use colored marbles, then count the marbles in the jar... most wins.

[susanna]

7. Love it! n/t

[LiberalFighter]

4. I don't think changing every voter status to inactive would had worked

There would had been havoc immediately because they have to send the data to printers to print up the voter roll for each precinct/ward. If the printer receives the tape and nothing on it they would call to find out if they made a mistake.

Wiping out the whole database may have worked but I doubt it unless data is not backed up every day.

Then there are the hard copy of new registrations which I am sure is kept for a while.

I could come up with hack that could accomplish the desired affect so that it would be too late to react in time.

[bigmonkey]

5. He's using an "a fortiori" argument.

That is, if they could have wiped out the database, or changed the status of all voters, the possibility of that more drastic action shows that any more subtle deed would be possible.

[Barrett808]

6. Nicely said. n/t

[susanna]

9. I love that argument...

...because I think that's the point (subtle deeds wreaking havoc), as it is VERY hard to get the idea of the vulnerability of these systems across to people unfamiliar with computer systems. (In my experience, anyway.)

Most folks are now so used to computers in their daily lives that they cannot imagine an instance where they would not be "helpful" or, have mercy on us, "be more efficient."

There are times when efficiency is NOT the priority. Voting in the world's first true people's nation is one of those, IMHO. But then I think I am preaching to the choir (just to coin a phrase).

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. The Repug hackers love inactive voters

those are the ones they can switch to active voters and then vote for them.

A SOE in FL told me that the Repugs love the inactive voter lists and the request updates every week.

[donco6]

8. Will it take something like that on election day . . .

. . . to get people to take vote tampering seriously? I mean a really obvious event - like erasing an entire database?

[krispos42]

12. Hugo Chavez 98%, Olympia Snow 2%

That might wake America up

[xchrom]

10. kinda like the ''civil war'' in iraq --

do we{i don't mean du} believe in vote tampering yet?

since florida -- example after example after example that there is something smelly in denmark and still these things are ''threats'' or ''concerns'' or whatever --

[sarcasmo]

11. Doesn't Oregon mail in their vote.

No hacking snail mail.

[MGKrebs]

13. Yikes. Is that the scent of "legal defense fund" I smell?

[tomreedtoon]

15. Why DIDN'T they do serious hacking?

Why didn't they simply wipe out the entire database? Change every voter's name to Squarepants, Spongebob and the addresses to 69 Pineapple-Under-The-Sea?

Yes, it would be a criminal act. Yes, it would get them arrested. But it would have pointed out how insecure the system was, in a way that no one, not even Fox, could deny. And their spokesmen could simply say "We haven't done anything that the Republican Party hasn't done in previous elections."

I remember a time when people who were dedicated to a cause would be willing to go to jail for that cause. Well, this generation of Democrats would feel too upset at missing their mid-morning cappucino at Starbuck's to risk anything like that.

[Polesitter]

17. Why would they do serious hacking? It's the repugs that tout

all this electronic shit, so a group proving them wrong isn't about to wipe out one of the most reliably blue states there is. They apparently went out to prove a point, and did. But of course, if on e-day, there is a 150% write-in vote to recall Sen Obama, we might conclude differently, n'est pas?

[tomreedtoon]

19. My point is, prove undeniably that the system is screwed!

After Election Day, there's no further choice. If you deliberately break the system so someone has to use paper ballots, and they must be hand-counted by human beings, at least there's a slightly better chance of having your vote counted.

I discovered when I early-voted that Orange County, Florida has gone from optically-read paper ballots to one of these thrice-damned touch-screen voting machines. It didn't say "Diebold" on it, that I could see anyway, but I'm afraid I just re-elected George Bush as Pope.

If I had that hacking software, and it worked on our brand of voting machine, I would have no qualms about destroying EVERYONE'S vote, to embarass the election commissioner (and hopefully lose them their jobs) and forcing a paper ballot.

[donsu]

16. kick

nt

[InsultComicDog]

18. They'll probably arrest Bob Wilson et al

for tampering with the vote.

And completely fail to address the problem.