Diebold’s Secret Defects Detailed by Blackboxvoting!

By Jerry Depew (Reposted from Iowa Voters)

Calling it a July 4 firecracker, Blackboxvoting.org has released information that it kept secret in May. The secrets reveal what Diebold may have known all along: how to capture and corrupt their voting machines.

In May BBV released a self-censored report of its examination of Diebold equipment. The exam had been made possible by Bruce Funk at the Emery county election department in Utah. The report made national news because computer scientists proclaimed their shock at that the vulnerabilities of Diebold’s wares that were partially revealed in the report. BBV said that if the whole report were made public, it would constitute a road map for how to steal votes on Diebold touchscreens and avoid detection.

Why did Diebold deserve any deference from BBV in the first place? many people asked. Other computer scientists explained that it was industry practice for critics to privately warn software authors about weaknesses in their software. The weaknesses would not be reported publicly for a brief period, thus allowing the creator to make amends.

But Diebold did not make amends. It denied the problem. Election officials did not make amends, either. They kept using the equipment, merely adding a little security tape here and there.

Now the brief period has elapsed. The whole story is told, complete with pictures, at blackboxvoting.org.

Iowa counties collectively have millions of dollars invested in these devices, which were used in over a thousand precincts in the June primary.

Bev Harris and blackboxvoting.org sure know how to celebrate the Fourth of July: by practicing America’s politics of checks and balances. Happy Fireworks ~~*