An internet-based voting system that was hacked last week by researchers at the University of Michigan stored its database username, password and encryption key on a server open to attack.
Alex Halderman, a computer scientist at the university, has detailed the vulnerabilities and hacking techniques his students used to completely control the system last week. The hack allowed them to change votes and program the system to play his school’s fight song “Hail to the Victors” after each voter cast their ballot.
The hack, unnoticed by election officials until researchers notified them, forced election officials to take the system offline and adopt a contingency plan for the November elections.
Washington, DC, began testing its internet voting system last Tuesday in advance of the November elections. The system, paid for in part with a $300,000 federal grant, is designed to let overseas military and civilian voters cast ballots quickly, instead of relying on the postal system to deliver their votes in a timely manner.
It died within 36 hours. FAIL.
Its a 300 fucking thousand dollar grant, and all of that fucking work and they cant even secure it against one of the most basic attacks ever. Its so sad, it makes me cry.
We should ban the government from using computers. They dont deserve it.
