Hovav Shacham Describes new finding of Electronic Voting Vulnerability (video)

[Stevepol]

Here's the video. Well worth a look-see.

http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_video/play.sfe?id=40

Another article goes into greater detail about the genesis of the hack.

http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=873

Here are some highlights of the article:

San Diego, CA, August 10, 2009 -- Computer scientists demonstrated that criminals could hack an electronic voting machine and steal votes using a malicious programming approach that had not been invented when the voting machine was designed. The team of scientists from University of California, San Diego, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University employed “return-oriented programming” to force a Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine to turn against itself and steal votes.

“Voting machines must remain secure throughout their entire service lifetime, and this study demonstrates how a relatively new programming technique can be used to take control of a voting machine that was designed to resist takeover, but that did not anticipate this new kind of malicious programming,” said Hovav Shacham, a professor of computer science at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering...

...snip

“Based on our understanding of security and computer technology, it looks like paper-based elections are the way to go. Probably the best approach would involve fast optical scanners reading paper ballots. These kinds of paper-based systems are amenable to statistical audits, which is something the election security research community is shifting to,” said Shacham.
“You can actually run a modern and efficient election on paper that does not look like the Florida 2000 Presidential election,” said Shacham. “If you are using electronic voting machines, you need to have a separate paper record at the very least


Thanks to WillYourVoteBeCounted:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x513898

[snot]

1. K&R'd!