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Hackers Attempt to Sabotage Swedish Election With Wily Write-In Codes

by Warren Riddle on September 25, 2010 at 09:00 AM

hacker sabotage
Sweden's election regulations feature a quaint guideline that allows voters to write-in their selections by literally handwriting them on slips of paper. During the nation's most recent election, hackers attempted to undermine that system by surreptitiously including codes that could have completely crippled the tabulation process.

Sweden openly displays the written votes to maintain transparency and legitimacy, and an attentive and knowledgeable citizen noticed an aberration as he scrolled through that public list. Blogger Jonas Elfstrom identified a "Drop Down" code among the votes, which could have corrupted and erased the entire database of results. Other groups also attempted attacks, as nefarious anarchists and corporate shills entered Javascript, as well as codes for websites and online retailers. All of those assaults were foiled, though, because -- according to Wired -- "the list of votes was published in plain text, rather than HTML."

With its system open and vulnerable to abuse, perhaps it's time for Sweden to investigate more modernized election techniques. Following the lead of the U.S., whose inventive and futuristic machines remain light years ahead of hackers, would be a promising start. Er, perhaps that's not such a great idea, either.

Tags: coding, election, hack, hackers, politics, security, SqlInjection, sweden, votingmachines, web

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