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I was surprised to read that this remote vulnerability is possible in 23 states. I thought that the United States prides itself on its democracy? How come votin

by Klover 8y ago

I was surprised to read that this remote vulnerability is possible in 23 states. I thought that the United States prides itself on its democracy? How come voting machines are possible in a democracy?

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deathanatos 8y ago
The voting population doesn't directly control voting machines. I'd say it's a mix between getting a good representative elected, and getting the facts known and actually debated. (In case you're not from the US: our government is largely a representative democracy, not a direct democracy, with a few exceptions, such as California's proposition system.) I would say that voting machines are also a niche issue: whether that's good or not, IDK, but most candidates (I feel) would rather discuss their positions on more mainstream topics such as gun control issues, gay rights, abortion, economics issues (particularly vague economic issues), whether or not we should build a wall, etc. Technology is a rare issue, and even rarer to see a candidate demonstrate an understanding of the facts in the issue.
mulmen 8y ago
You're conflating the American idea of democracy with voting. They're only tangentially related. We have one of (maybe the) lowest voter turnout rate and institutionalized voter disenfranchisement is as popular as baseball.
hvdhh7 8y ago
This isn't a remote vulnerability, btw. The attach involves picking the lock a and inserting a device to a parallel port.
- ganoushoreilly 8y ago
  The surprising part of most of these vulnerabilities is they are hardware attacks. I had a talk with someone the other day that said she heard people were hacking votes from iPhones. The over simplification of the topic is doing just as much harm as good. I don't know any security professional that would tell you physical access isn't equal to the ability to hack a device. The reality is subversion of people managing processes is of a higher probability that attacks of the machines themselves. It's also not unique to electronic voting, people are always the weak link in security and will always be the weak link.
  - hvdhh7 8y ago
    The first new attack described in last year's report was that you could DoS a machine by removing its CPU. Which, sure, is something to think about. But it's not what I think people are imagining when you say "voting machine hacking."
    - ganoushoreilly 8y ago
      Right!! It's like saying you could DoS a car by removing it's spark plugs.

by Klover 8y ago

I was surprised to read that this remote vulnerability is possible in 23 states. I thought that the United States prides itself on its democracy? How come voting machines are possible in a democracy?

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deathanatos 8y ago

The voting population doesn't directly control voting machines. I'd say it's a mix between getting a good representative elected, and getting the facts known and actually debated. (In case you're not from the US: our government is largely a representative democracy, not a direct democracy, with a few exceptions, such as California's proposition system.) I would say that voting machines are also a niche issue: whether that's good or not, IDK, but most candidates (I feel) would rather discuss their positions on more mainstream topics such as gun control issues, gay rights, abortion, economics issues (particularly vague economic issues), whether or not we should build a wall, etc. Technology is a rare issue, and even rarer to see a candidate demonstrate an understanding of the facts in the issue.

mulmen 8y ago

You're conflating the American idea of democracy with voting. They're only tangentially related. We have one of (maybe the) lowest voter turnout rate and institutionalized voter disenfranchisement is as popular as baseball.

hvdhh7 8y ago

This isn't a remote vulnerability, btw. The attach involves picking the lock a and inserting a device to a parallel port.

ganoushoreilly 8y ago
The surprising part of most of these vulnerabilities is they are hardware attacks. I had a talk with someone the other day that said she heard people were hacking votes from iPhones. The over simplification of the topic is doing just as much harm as good. I don't know any security professional that would tell you physical access isn't equal to the ability to hack a device. The reality is subversion of people managing processes is of a higher probability that attacks of the machines themselves. It's also not unique to electronic voting, people are always the weak link in security and will always be the weak link.
- hvdhh7 8y ago
  The first new attack described in last year's report was that you could DoS a machine by removing its CPU. Which, sure, is something to think about. But it's not what I think people are imagining when you say "voting machine hacking."
  - ganoushoreilly 8y ago
    Right!! It's like saying you could DoS a car by removing it's spark plugs.