Thom Hartmann: Could Hacktivists hack a Diebold Machine?

[thomhartmann]

Run time: 05:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vNaXoN0xdY   Posted on YouTube: September 29, 2011 By YouTube Member: TheBigPictureRT Views on YouTube: 17   Posted on DU: September 29, 2011 By DU Member: thomhartmann Views on DU: 945

 
Today we learned that our democracy could be hacked by an eighth grader with 26 bucks. That’s what a security assessment team with the US Department of Energy discovered when they successfully hacked into a Diebold electronic voting machine - and were able to change voting results without leaving a trace behind. These are the same guys that make sure the facilities that manufacture nuclear bombs are secure - and the security assessment team leader said about the voting machine hack, “this is a national security issue.” Despite all this - in next year’s election - 30% of voters are expected to use these very same “hack-easy” voting machines - that the rest of the world have shelved citing security concerns. And today - with the rise of hack-activist groups like Anonymous - this glaring hole in the security of our elections - could be exploited for absurd purposes...and, the nominee is...Scooby Doo?

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[midnight]

1. In Wisconsin the head of the Government Accountability Board

used Accenture to privatize our vote counting...


"They want to privatize our highways, our university, our museums and now our elections. Egad! Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state of Wisconsin’s Elections Board, signed a contract with a multi-national calling itself Accenture (it was part of Enron-tainted Arthur Anderson) to create “a total management package to run our elections.” Hello? See Bill Lueders’ column in Isthmus for the full, disturbing story, and then ask, What in the world is wrong with Kevin Kennedy?/

No public hearings were held on the outsourcing of our elections to a company–one that is based in Bermuda to avoid taxes in this country. When I called the Elections Board on Wednesday, I was told that it is, in essence, too late to complain because the contract has been signed. Really? Is it too late to fire Kennedy, appoint a new board, and cancel the contract? I don’t think so.
Call the elections Board and demand that they cancel this contract. Believe it or not Mr. Kennedy, the citizens of Wisconsin are quite capable of managing our own elections.

Kennedy’s Vested Interest

Kennedy has a long history of chummy ties with the Accenture and Electronic Voting Systems. He pitched the system to the legislature. Do you really think he is going to be fair and impartial in answering questions about poll tapes?"http://myplayfulself.com/wordpress/archives/6098

[dash_bannon]

2. Any Machine on a Network Can be Hacked

Any machine connected to a network can be hacked. A disconnected machine can be hacked, but it's harder. Someone would have to steal the machine to hack it.

I've been an election judge in the past few elections. Although I'm not a fan of computerized voting, there is a system in place to check the number of votes cast to the number of votes in the machine. If there's any irregularity, it takes hours to check the machine. If the machine is compromised the votes don't get counted.

I suspect in cases where more votes appear than the number of votes cast occurs, someone's doing some home cooking.

Republican Party, I'm looking in your general direction.

[ComtesseDeSpair]

3. So if these machines can be easily hacked...

Why don't we hack them next election and make the democratic candidate win by astounding margins - utterly ridiculous margins. Like, oh, let's say, 50,000 votes in an area of only 20,000 registered voters. Why, I bet you'd see some action on this issue if the tables were turned and it was the leftwing hacking in favor of the leftwing candidates instead of the rightwing. And lord knows, we have Anonymous on our side - they should have no problem completely destroying all of the electronic voting in the next election. Sure, it would be an expensive and frustrating pain the ass to have to redo the entire election... but it would set us on the right path towards a just election process, at least!