Will Hackers Try To Disrupt the Iowa Caucuses? 162
Hugh Pickens writes "The Iowa Republican Party is boosting the security of the electronic systems it will use to count the first votes of the 2012 presidential campaign after receiving a mysterious threat to its computers in a video urging its supporters to shut down the Iowa caucuses .... 'It's very clear the data consolidation and data gathering from the caucuses, which determines the headlines the next morning, who might withdraw or resign from the process, all of that is fragile,' says Douglas Jones, a computer science professor at the University of Iowa who has consulted for both political parties. The state GOP fears such a delay could disrupt the traditional influence of Iowa's first-in-the-nation vote. 'With the eyes of the media on the state, the last thing we want to do is have a situation where there is trouble with the reporting system,' says Wes Enos, a member of the Iowa GOP's central committee. The GOP is encouraging party activists who run the precinct votes to use paper ballots instead of a show of hands, which has been the practice in some areas so the ballots can provide a backup in the event of any later confusion about the results. 'There is really only one way — and it needn't be a secret — to help assure that results cannot easily be manipulated by either Anonymous or by GOP officials themselves,' writes Brad Friedman. 'The hand-counted paper ballot system, with decentralized results posted at the "precincts," is the only way to try and protect against manipulation of the results from either insiders or outsiders.'"
First Votes (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sorry Ron Paul (Score:4, Interesting)
But if he does, they can blame it on some anonymous hackers.
Which of course it must be if (insertRandomCandidateHere) wins.
It's a bit of a waste though, everyone knows they save the real hacking for the final tally counts to decide president, not this early stage. Maybe the GOP are just upset 4chan peeps are going to decide the next president and not Karl Rove?
Re:The real story here... (Score:4, Interesting)
Iowans aren't the simpletons that they are often portrayed as. Maybe they aren't Masters of the Universe, but they know what the game is and the game is to milk every candidate for as much as they can. The most they have done so far this election cycle as far as picking candidates is bleed the Bachmann campaign dry, which I wouldn't class as a negative outcome. Mittens isn't my candidate, but he knows that Iowa knows they game and only started making a real effort once the other candidates beat each other to hell.
Re:Request? (Score:3, Interesting)
The last one was my first real exposure to Romney... He just seemed like a nothing. The republican version of Obama, trying to associate himself with hopeful ideals rather than any kind of policy (his advisors think we are all idiots). If he is nominated it will be a joke. Really, I know of no actual person (who not a talking head or politician) who is excited at all about him. Hes like the "company man" or something. Groomed for this job and paid his dues to whoever is pulling the strings. Really it just creeps me out. The more I see, I realize the president doesn't matter so much in the big scheme of things anyway though.
Re:No. (Score:3, Interesting)
That's inaccurate.
War with Muslims:
http://nothingchanged.org/obama_and_muder_of_innocents_by_drone.html [nothingchanged.org]
Related topics include attempting to undermine the cluster bomb treaty:
http://nothingchanged.org/obama_loves_to_cluster_bomb_innocent_people.html [nothingchanged.org]
Plan B is interesting in that a person with a Masters in Public Administration from the U. of Kansas overruled the head of the FDA and her Harvard medical degree.
http://nothingchanged.org/obama_hates_birth_control.html [nothingchanged.org]
Obama has argued in court for every constitution shredding policy of the Bush administration and added a few of his own, like due process free execution.
Obama is as evil as Bush was and what is worse, because he is democrat nobody pretends to be ticked off anymore. All Obama has done has take the radical crap Bush did at make it the new normal.
Obama, change you can believe in if you live in a neocon's wet dream.
Re:Hello Dystopia (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't recall hacktivists running Gitmo, or waterboarding people, or renditioning them, or claiming that the AUMF authorizes the President to assassinate American citizens. Am I missing something?
Re:Not a Secret Ballot (Score:2, Interesting)
Register for now. If Ron Paul wins I suspect Iowa will join the growing trend of needing to register months in advance, require a photo ID, can only register at approved locations with populations of a certain size after giving a DNA sample and a bi-weekly drug test.
Sorry, nm, I was looking a decade into the future if the trend continues.