| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
09 Feb 2004 06:04:14 PM |
| Object: |
Pentagon cancels Internet voting test |
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4184803/
Pentagon cancels Internet voting test
Too many concerns about ballot security, official says
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:27 p.m. ET Feb. 05, 2004
Citing security concerns, the Pentagon has canceled Internet voting that
would have involved as many as 100,000 military and overseas citizens
from seven states in November, a Defense Department official said
Thursday.
The announcement comes two weeks after four outside security experts
urged the program’s cancellation in a scathing report. They said hackers
or terrorists could penetrate the system and change votes or gather
information about users. At the time, the Pentagon said it felt
confident enough to proceed.
But Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has since decided to scrap
the system because Pentagon officials were not certain they could
“assure the legitimacy of votes that would be cast,” said a Pentagon
official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said alternative voting systems will now be considered,
possibly using the Internet as well. The official could not say when, if
ever, such a system would be ready.
Debate will continue
Accenture eDemocracy Services, the vendor that built the system, issued
a statement indicating testing will continue.
“This is now an opportunity to demonstrate that the Internet is viable,
valuable and secure enough to use for filing absentee ballots,” said Meg
McLaughlin, the Accenture unit’s president. “We are confident that
sending absentee ballots via the Internet is just as secure and reliable
as sending them by mail.”
The skeptics were elated.
“We certainly share their desire to make sure that our military people
have the opportunity to vote in the national election, but it’s always
been our contention that we’re not doing them any favor by providing
them an insecure system on which to vote,” said Barbara Simons, one of
four co-authors of the critical Pentagon voting report and a former
president of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Aimed at aiding overseas citizens
The $22 million Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or
SERVE, was designed to help overseas citizens vote in U.S. elections.
Nearly one in three overseas soldiers registered to vote in the 2000
presidential election didn’t receive ballots in time.
In a smaller Internet voting trial conducted that same year by the
Pentagon’s Federal Voting Assistance Program, 84 citizens submitted
online ballots to Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
This year’s $22 million trial, also overseen by the Pentagon agency, was
to have covered 50 counties in Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Washington. It would have been open
to nonmilitary Americans abroad and military personnel stationed at U.S.
and foreign bases. Any Internet-connected computer running Windows
operating systems, including at a cybercafe, could have been used for
voting.
The system was to be ready for the general elections and possibly later
primary states, though it had not been certified in time for use in
Tuesday’s South Carolina primary.
About 6 million U.S. voters live overseas, most of them members of the
military or their relatives.
Risks tallied
The report from Simons and three other experts on a 10-member Pentagon
peer-review panel said Internet voting could not be made secure — at
least using today’s technology — primarily because the Internet and
personal computers are inherently vulnerable to hackers and viruses.
The experts specified these central risks, among others:
* There is no way to verify that the vote recorded inside the system
is the same as the one cast by the voter.
* It might be possible for hackers to determine how a particular
individual voted, “an obvious privacy risk.”
* The system may be vulnerable to attacks from many quarters, some
undetectable. Stealth programs as trojan horses that harvest data are
sometimes installed on public computer terminals.
Doug Lewis, executive director of the Houston-based Election Center
research group, said the Pentagon decision will likely set back Internet
voting. Many states had been awaiting the results of the trial before
committing to widespread online voting.
Michigan Democrats already have begun online voting leading up to
Saturday’s caucuses, which are run by the party and are thus not subject
to election certification requirements.
© 2004 The Associated Press.
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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| User: "Goodness Godless" |
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| Title: Re: Pentagon cancels Internet voting test |
09 Feb 2004 06:17:11 PM |
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"stoney" <stoney@the.net> wrote in message
news:bc7g209usgn2t1v6dq551p3munjhg03p2e@4ax.com...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4184803/
Pentagon cancels Internet voting test
Too many concerns about ballot security, official says
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:27 p.m. ET Feb. 05, 2004
<sniped only for brevity>
Have you noticed that in all the *newer democracies, the 'ballot boxes'
(remember them) are made out of transparent Perspex.
--
Goodness Godless
When I was young there was no respect for the young, and now that I am old
there is no respect for the old. I missed out coming and going.
J.B. Priestley
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Pentagon cancels Internet voting test |
13 Feb 2004 10:01:11 AM |
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On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 02:17:11 +0200, "Goodness Godless"
<goodness@godless.net>, Message ID:
<1076372116.217850@athnrd02.forthnet.gr> wrote in alt.atheism;
"stoney" <stoney@the.net> wrote in message
news:bc7g209usgn2t1v6dq551p3munjhg03p2e@4ax.com...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4184803/
Pentagon cancels Internet voting test
Too many concerns about ballot security, official says
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:27 p.m. ET Feb. 05, 2004
<sniped only for brevity>
Have you noticed that in all the *newer democracies, the 'ballot boxes'
(remember them) are made out of transparent Perspex.
Nope. Sorry.
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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| User: "Alun Harford" |
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| Title: Re: Pentagon cancels Internet voting test |
11 Feb 2004 09:00:00 AM |
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"stoney" <stoney@the.net> wrote in message
news:bc7g209usgn2t1v6dq551p3munjhg03p2e@4ax.com...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4184803/
Pentagon cancels Internet voting test
Too many concerns about ballot security, official says
Well bloody hell - who'd have thought it.
Well actually.....
Just thiknk how much it cost US taxpayers to produce that report when
somebody could have just walked up to any computer scientitst and said:
Q: "Can anybody make a secure internet voting system"
A: "Probably not."
Q: "Can the government do it?"
A: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" <rolls around on floor>
(Leave and come back 15 minutes later)
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" <STILL rolling around on floor>
(leave and come back a week later)
"hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ha ha ha." <gets up> "No."
It'd be a far cheaper study.
Alun Harford
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