LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
print Printable version 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
IP protection comes to Android apps
Arxan's software uses "Guards" to handle defense mechanisms for code
Microsoft pushes Windows Phone 7 development tools
Ahead of the smartphone's release, Microsoft is letting developers download its tools in a...
Red Hat turns its eyes to the cloud
The company's new PaaS strategy will incorporate the JBoss enterprise middleware stack and...
Updated Redis NoSQL can store hashes, save datasets
More than just a key-value store, version 2.0 of Redis pushes it as a jack-of-all-trades N...
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter


            iphoneapp GET THE APP!

Touch-Screen Voting Machines Not Counted On


Security experts say optical scan best way to ensure election accuracy

By Jeff Feinman
February 13, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 3)
In Avi Rubin’s eyes, the best way to improve direct-recording electronic voting machines, or DREs, is to stop using them altogether.

Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University and longtime critic of electronic voting methods of all stripes, said that U.S. states are moving away from the questionable DRE machines, also known as touch-screens, to optical scanning, and he couldn’t be happier.

The issue has come to the fore again during this primary voting season in the United States, as Americans in both the Democratic and Republican parties choose their candidate for the November presidential elections.

Using optical scan machines, voters fill in an oval beside the name of a candidate, and the optical scan could reject an invalid ballot. Because it uses a paper ballot for scanning, this method offers the ability to audit ballots and perform recounts, while DREs keep vote totals on computer file and lack ballots.

“You just have to trust that everything is working correctly inside the machine,” Rubin said. “I think optical scan has its own challenges, but it does provide a mechanism to audit the election, which I don’t think should ever be compromised. The optical scanners are computers just like the touch-screens, but they have much less code in them, and less code means fewer bugs, and it’s easier to audit.”

Rubin knows all too well about the vulnerabilities of electronic machines. In 2004, he manually reviewed leaked source code from Diebold electronic voting equipment and discovered problems. Since then, he has been urging states to move away from DREs.

Questions Surround DREs

The most common vulnerability found in the machines’ software is memory buffer overflows, according to Rob Rachwald, product marketing director at Fortify Software, which sells testing software for security.’s director of product marketing. By using the overflow condition to bypass normal operation, hackers could potentially adjust the vote count or eliminate votes by bringing down a system.

Another issue uncovered by Fortify’s SCA scanner was vulnerabilities in password storage for the administrators who access the machines.

Pages 1 2 3 


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/31718
 

Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading



 
 
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 
Download Current Issue
ISSUE 9/1/2010 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive the print Edition?


 
blogs tab
VMworld hops to it
Data center operating systems play a big part at VMworld, but it's still too soon.
09/02/2010 01:42 PM EST

Certificate program for secure cloud computing
The Cloud Security Alliance introduces user certification.
09/01/2010 04:20 PM EST

What does the Army's Crusher tank and RIM's tablet computer have in common?
RIM plans to use Crusher tank technology on its yet-to-be-announced tablet.
08/25/2010 04:16 PM EST

 

Events calendar tab
Intel Developer Forum
9/13/2010 to 9/15/2010
San Francisco
Intel

JavaOne & Oracle Develop
9/19/2010 to 9/23/2010
San Francisco
Oracle

Oracle OpenWorld
9/19/2010 to 9/23/2010
San Francisco
Oracle

ESC Boston
9/20/2010 to 9/23/2010
Boston
TechInsights

High Performance Computing Financial Markets
9/20/2010
New York City
Flagg Management