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Sequoia e-Voting Machines Easy to Hack, Princeton Study Finds

by Tim Stevens on October 24, 2008 at 05:32 PM

Princeton publishes how-to guide for hacking Sequoia e-voting machines
If you're American, it's nearly time to do your civic duty and pick the lesser of two evils for the greater good... and then to wonder if that vote actually got counted. With Diebold admitting its own machines are utterly insecure, competitor Sequoia is now under the microscope and, after a little quality time with the company's machines, Princeton researchers have filed a 158 page report on the ease of replacing their ROMs and winning yourself an election.

Okay, we know what you're thinking: "Hacking hardware isn't exactly easy when the computer is in a locked box." Amazingly, it is. A researcher was able to bypass the physical security mechanisms in 13 seconds, despite never having picked a lock before. Now you're thinking: "But you'd need to do that on hundreds of them!" Not so; once infected that malicious code can spread itself to others, and, with no paper trail and an easily bypassed internal audit system, you're well on your way to whatever dark corner of Washington, D.C. you care to occupy!

[Via Ars Technica]

Tags: e-voting, elections, electronic voting, ElectronicVoting, hacking, politics, princeton, security, Sequoia, voting

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