From FORTUNE Magazine, Dec. 22, 2003 Issue:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,558787,00.html
WINNERS AND LOSERS OF 2003
Worst Technology
By Peter Lewis
Paperless Voting
Remember all the chads and dimples that made voting for President so
chaotic in Florida three years ago?
In a well-meaning effort to fix the system before the 2004 elections,
many communities--in Florida and in other states--have begun to
install direct-recording electronic machines (DRE), which instantly
record and tabulate votes; some even use fancy touch-screen technology
similar to automated-teller machines in banks.
Computer scientists are alarmed, however, by the potential to
manipulate the new machines.
Internal documents from Diebold Election Systems, which has sold more
than 33,000 AccuVote DRE machines, acknowledge that there have been
security flaws, although the company denies that the flaws could allow
a hacker to cast multiple votes or alter the votes of others, as
critics suggest.
Diebold asserts that the problems have been or are being fixed, but it
is waging a legal war to have the embarrassing documents removed from
the Internet.
Runner-up:
Talk about embedded processors!
A Florida company, Applied Digital Solutions, wants consumers to
surgically implant its radio-frequency identification device (RFID)
under their skin.
The company says its VeriChip system would reduce identity theft,
enhance airport and office security, and eliminate the need for
picture IDs.
A VeriChip-based ATM machine, for example, would scan a customer's
body for a unique radio ID signal before dispensing cash.
Besides problems with privacy and an almost complete lack of industry
support, there's also the issue of whether anyone would voluntarily
pay for surgery to have the chip implanted.
Update:
Last year's Worst Technology of the Year, the Pentagon's nationwide
Total Information Awareness data mining and spy-on-everybody project,
had a stake driven through its suppurating heart when Congress cut off
its funding in 2003.
TIA's godfather, retired admiral John Poindexter, resigned shortly
thereafter.
Good riddance.
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Harry
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