Critical US Election Systems Have Been Left Exposed Online (vice.com) 128
Jason Koebler shares a report from Motherboard: For years, U.S. election officials and voting machine vendors have insisted that critical election systems are never connected to the internet and therefore can't be hacked. But a group of election security experts have found what they believe to be nearly three dozen backend election systems in 10 states connected to the internet over the last year, including some in critical swing states. These include systems in nine Wisconsin counties, in four Michigan counties, and in seven Florida counties -- all states that are perennial battlegrounds in presidential elections. Some of the systems have been online for a year and possibly longer. Some of them disappeared from the internet after the researchers notified an information-sharing group for election officials last year. But at least 19 of the systems, including one in Florida's Miami-Dade County, were still connected to the internet this week, the researchers told Motherboard. "We ... discovered that at least some jurisdictions were not aware that their systems were online," said Kevin Skoglund, an independent security consultant who conducted the research with nine others, all of them long-time security professionals and academics with expertise in election security. "In some cases, [the vendor was] in charge [of installing the systems] and there was no oversight. Election officials were publicly saying that their systems were never connected to the internet because they didn't know differently."
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found the pedantic asshole
there's always one
Re: We don't have a US election system. (Score:1)
Correction. There is always at least one.
They are still better than whiners who complain about them though.
Paperless, internet connect election systems. What could possibly go wrong?
Nyet.
Stayed online .... (Score:5, Interesting)
The fact that some stayed online after notification shows that this isn't simply incompetence.
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Business as usual I guess. Next, I wouldn't be surprised to read that the thermonuclear warhead intercontinental ballistic missiles launch codes were left publicly readable in an open amazon bucket or something.
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Re: Stayed online .... (Score:2)
Right, because It is INCONCEIVABLE an incompetent state worker could have left the system on-line after being told of the problem.
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Rural counties are sometimes so anti Federal Gov't that they'll do the opposite of any recommendations they get out of spite.
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The fact that some stayed online after notification shows that this isn't simply incompetence.
You have no idea of just how much incompetence is capable of in this world.
criminal penalties? (Score:2)
So... shouldn't they be prosecuted for fraud and vote tampering? Being safe from attacks from the Internet was one of most basic requirements.
Re: criminal penalties? (Score:1)
Vote tampering? The interesting election is 15 months away.
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Why? Nobody has to show ID at the polls anyway.
wat? What country is that?!? Rwanda?
Treasonous Republican faggot doublespeak problems? (Score:1)
"Attempts to correct this hole in our security" - You mean the one that wasn't exploited really much at all, compared to the ones that ARE being exploited by foreign actors, which you're BLOCKING THE FIX OF DIRECTLY?
Treasonous Republican faggot doublespeak problems? Tell it to the warden on intake, Trumptards.
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Odd, I sure as hell do.
At this point we know this is on purpose (Score:5, Informative)
This is why the Dems and the left have such a hard time. They go low, we go high... and lose. They are very much "ends justify the means". It's like that line from Spaceballs [youtube.com]
If anybody wants to put a stop to this now is the time. The left can still win elections if they win by 5-10 points. We haven't gone full North Korea yet where elections are really just a census to prevent the slaves from fleeing the country. The Democrats have a primary yet, and they've got at least one uncorruptible [berniesanders.com] and one other [elizabethwarren.com] that probably is along with a whole [youtube.com] host [medium.com] of others [youtube.com] who are completely corrupt.
Now is the time to decide what matters to you.
I totally agree! (Score:5, Insightful)
I loved the fact that he tore up the Iran Nuke deal because Obama. And now Iran is enriching uranium because fuck it!
Total WIN!
And Kim Jong-Un has been played by Trump! It was Turmp's intention for N. Korea to start missile tests again!
Win!
Tearing up NAFTA, getting into a trade war and then negotiating and getting the same thing again - WIN!
Telling the World that we won't accept anymore asylum seekers from Central America and creating this massive humanitarian crisis at our borders when none existed before - WIN!
The trade war with China will be won! I just love these tariffs. Because China is paying for them!!
And out of all the domestic terrorist attacks by right-wingers, there was ONE by a someone who appears to be a left-leaning person. Well, that TOTALLY exonerates the President of any inciting of violence on the right.
And the Mueller report about his TEN counts of obstruction of justice, well, Mueller is just a leftist plant and can't be trusted like the whole FBI. Mueller is COMEY's friend!!!
Yep, I want Trump back to stick it to the libs! Because that's all the matters.
About those tariffs (Score:3)
What I'm saying is this: Right now the tariffs aren't affecting you, they're affecting company profits. That won't la
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Extremely low unemployment, best age growth in decades, near-record increases in manufacturing, new businesses starting, and high consumer and business confidence... is a "weak economy".
Then why is the Fed lowering interest rates, if not to "juice" this supposedly-hot economy? Oh, right, because all the other stimuli that the "hot" economy supposedly didn't need but got anyway have been short-term fixes that are fading already. Wasn't the tax cut on the 1% supposed to lead to 5%+ growth for a decade?
B2B (Business-to-Business) forecasts are looking bad right now, across the board. That comes when? Right before B2C (Business-to-Consumer) spending tanks.
Economic indicators have been send
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It's weird how Trump keeps mentioning Antifa every time he says anything negative about the far right. Antifa has killed 0 people in the last few years. For 2018 alone there were over 300 far right murders.
Does he think Antifa is an equal threat, or is this just some "both sides" nonsense?
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To be fair, expectations are so fucking low that "managed to not get impeached yet" is actually an accomplishment.
Still not voting for him. Not sure who I am voting for, because I've paid absolutely no attention to the 3-ring shit show the DNC is putting on with all those clowns and their 50 debates where they all just parrot the same talking points while taking cheap jabs at people with name recognition rather than actually come up with ideas.
Get back to me in January when there are actual votes to be cas
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What matters to me is voting for our President to get another term.
There's a saying that diapers and politicians both should be changed frequently, and for the same reason.
Even if you think Trump is doing a great job, he has absolutely no incentive to keep doing a great job in a second term. Recently, the NRA just told Trump he better keep playing ball [aol.com], or face the possibility of losing his bid for re-election.
Allow this to sink in. Trump wants to do something a lot of Republicans oppose, but he'll likely be reined in by fear of losing re-election. Imagine if this wasn'
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This seems to get lost on a lot of people - the DNC managed to nominate the one politician in the country that had negatives on par with Trump, then ran an arrogant coastal-only campaign [businessinsider.com] which featured ignoring the industrial midwest, which went Republican for the first time since Reagan in 84.
You know who always bleats on about the popular vote? The losers that just can't imagine how they lost. It's called "moving the goalposts" and it's a coping mechanism that may as well be a big double-decker shit sa
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it's why Moscow Mitch [boingboing.net] is taking off. No, McConnell & the GOP aren't traitors who sold us out to the Ruskies,
No, they sold us out to Trump, and Trump is their ticket to power. Traitors are defined as the ones lending aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States, and Mitch et al are not serving some third-party enemies of the United States, they are the enemies of the United States, working to abolish its foundations and principles in order to serve themselves. The Russians are just a convenient asset while selling out the U.S., not some party they are particularly interested in serving.
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Nope, pretty sure that Benedict Arnold is still the biggest traitor in American history, what with him being an actual traitor who tried to give tactical plans to the enemy during a shooting war, then leading a brigade of soldiers against his former army, spiriting away to enemy territory to live the rest of his days after the British lost.
But I guess hyperbole is cool...
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> This is why the Dems and the left have such a hard time.
They don't have a hard time for some elections. Presidential elections aren't an issue. Obama won and Bill before that just fine. No matter how confident you may be, there's a risk that a candidate will seem to act against the interests they spoke for, during an election. The voting public chooses on particular issues (some topical) and presentation. This includes how loud and how often the public encounters messages, but it has a fair amount to d
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DON'T PANIC! (Score:1)
Critical US Election Systems Have Been Left Exposed Online
As long as this election interference is just the Russians supporting the Republican Party there is nothing to worry about, just lean back, enjoy and watch sanctioned Russian oligarchs build aluminium plants in your constituency [newsweek.com]. However if the Chinese show up and start to interfere on behalf of the Democrats, ... Patriots! Reach for your guns!
Hmmm.... Yup! that pretty much sums it up.
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I'll just leave this here ... (Score:2)
https://xkcd.com/2030/ [xkcd.com]
Aren't these... (Score:3)
Aren't these... the same twats that wrote things like "OMG why isn't internet voting here today because people are too stupid/poor/lazy to vote"?
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Aren't these... the same twats that wrote things like "OMG why isn't internet voting here today because people are too stupid/poor/lazy to vote"?
No.
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Proper internet voting would actually be a lot more secure than these machines.
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He isn't an asset (Score:5, Interesting)
What does Putin want?
Does he want the united States and it's allies to control the power dynamic of the entire globe?
I submit that he does not.
We have an American president and campaign that has had numerous interactions with Russian operatives.
Over the course of the last two years we have seen systematic destruction of institutions , regulations , and agreements that where meticulously devised to keep the United States in power.
We have seen an American president that has snubbed, insulted, and alienated our long standing allies. All while praising and meeting with dictators and human rights violators. During this period there have been several completely undocumented meeting and phone calls with Putin directly.
Does it take a genius to connect the dots here?
Re:He isn't an asset (Score:4, Interesting)
Does it take a genius to connect the dots here?
Maybe not. But it does require something else that not everyone has. At least not all the time.
The philosopher Harry Frankfurt, in his book "On Bullshit", claims that people today use sincerity as a substitute for correctness. They judge a statement by whether it is spoken with conviction, not whether it corresponds to some external set of objective facts.
Judging a statement by its sincerity is really easy. Does it sound genuine to you? Then most people would treat it as *true*. Very few would check it against facts. Even when connecting the dots is extremely easy, it can't possibly be easier than simply knowing what you feel to be true.
This is why people in America with different political views can't work together. Common sense would tell you that even enemies occasionally have interests in common. During the Cold War the US and Soviet Union often cooperated on matters despite being bitter rivals. But that was harsh reality forcing us to do things we didn't find easy. Take reality out of the picture and there is never any basis for working with people who follow a different messiah than you do.
It's not that we can't rise above that. It's that this generation has yet to meet anyone who can force us to.
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Does it take a genius to connect the dots here?
Maybe not. But it does require something else that not everyone has. At least not all the time.
The philosopher Harry Frankfurt, in his book "On Bullshit", claims that people today use sincerity as a substitute for correctness. They judge a statement by whether it is spoken with conviction, not whether it corresponds to some external set of objective facts.
Judging a statement by its sincerity is really easy. Does it sound genuine to you? Then most people would treat it as *true*. Very few would check it against facts. Even when connecting the dots is extremely easy, it can't possibly be easier than simply knowing what you feel to be true.
Ethos, Logos, and Pathos.
The three options to persuade.
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people today use sincerity as a substitute for correctness
That's not quite right. Ending with "it's true, believe me!" tends to subtract a large amount of credibility from the preceding statement, yet Trump does it all the time and people act as if what he said is true and correct.
We are way beyond correct, way beyond truth now.
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Were you unaware that all Presidents have "numerous interactions with Russian operatives"? That it is in fact, part of the job? That campaigns meet with foreign officials all the time in order to start building relationships in case they win? That both campaigns did?
Did you think that handling foreign affairs in a manner you don't care for was the same as working against our interests?
It would take a schizophrenic or
Re:He isn't an asset (Score:4, Insightful)
What "institutions, regulations and agreements" have been systematically destroyed?
Were you unaware that all Presidents have "numerous interactions with Russian operatives"? That it is in fact, part of the job? That campaigns meet with foreign officials all the time in order to start building relationships in case they win? That both campaigns did?
Did you think that handling foreign affairs in a manner you don't care for was the same as working against our interests?
It would take a schizophrenic or someone already determined to draw a specific picture to "connect the dots" in the manner you suggest.
There literally isn't enough time in the day to explain the full breadth of this problem to you , especially considering you have obviously been drinking the kool-aid.
I'll give you a couple:
1) You are familiar with the united nations yes? the U.N.? The organization formed by the United states and its allies after world war II. The president wanted to send a fox news anchor to represent the United States. Heather Nauert. Are you fucking kidding me? Your brain will not allow you to process that information in an objective way because your boy can do no wrong. So i'll do it for you, its fucking disrespectful and it's irresponsible. And it sends a message to our allies, and that message is "Fuck you"
2) The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - Specifically engineered with the goal of protecting America's trade interests. Destroyed Why? Because why not right? Because the "stable genius" knows that anything that a black guy was involved with crafting has to be shit right?
3) The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - more commonly know as the Iran deal. Meticulously crafted and negotiated with the specific goal of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It wasn't just one guy that came up with this plan on a lark. This was a multi-nation collaborative effort. This deal was not put in place to fundamentally alter the culture and belief system of a sovereign nation. It was strictly to keep nukes out of their hands , that's it, and it was working VERY well.
4) The Paris Agreement. Every single country in the world (all of them) entered into an agreement to recognize the importance of limiting greenhouse gas production. The U.S. pulls out , why? Because the "stable genius" knows way more than any dumb old scientist right? Or even all of them? or even the entire world, right, right?
5) The president stands next to Putin on the global stage , on national television, and basically says he trust Putin's word over the collective finding of the united states intelligence community. You'r not one of those deep state conspiracy guys are you?
6) /whispers I'm going to let you in on the real conspiracy lean closer - trump is a fucking moron, and it makes him a good asset.
I don't have the time to help you become more intelligent than you are. You wear your big smile and red hat, and go chant in a rally like a good boy now ok?
Rebublicans are conspiring with Russia (Score:5, Informative)
Trump is a Russian asset. McConnell is a Russian asset. They have committed treason. Blocking legislation to insure election integrity is aiding and abetting a hostile power.
Congressional Republicans are all conspirators after the fact. They took an oath of office to defend the Constitution. Doing nothing while the Administration sells out the election to Russia is an act of treason. Their silence makes them a crucial part of the ongoing conspiracy. Their oath means they have a positive duty to defend the country so inaction means they are breaking the law.
Trump and McConnell should be tried for treason. It's traditional for traitors to die by firing squad. The rest of the elected Republican traitors should serve life sentences in a Federal maximum security prison and die in jail.
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And yet you didn't complain when Obama and Clinton won two terms. Somehow the Russians were not doing anything, and everything is fine. Christ, you guys are so stupid.
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Halloween must've come early this year, because I see all the strawmen are out defending insecure elections.
Illegals are going to vote!
The Democrats didn't whine about this back in the day!
It's not the Fed's problem!
There are no Russians!
It's time to drop the bullshit. If you're winning fair and square, election security is a good thing. The fact that this is even a partisan issue speaks volumes about how brainwashed people have become to supporting their favorite "team" and completely disregarding any ne
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It worked to get (fake) President Trump into office in the first place
Keep believing that and your side (whatever side that is) will keep losing elections. Everyday people are tired of the bullshit and they elected Trump as a huge Fuck You to the entire political scene.
Did the Russians engineer that? Maybe, but it was local politicians who created the environment for that crime to occur in. The Democrats fucked themselves hard and are now doubling down on their stupidity. Yell about treason all you want, it won't make people vote Democrat. Democrats are a toxic cesspool of co
The US is old news (Score:4, Insightful)
With Trump, Moscow Mitch, Republicans groping Jesus, daily shootings, good people on both sides“ and internet connected computers deciding who won the election the citizens of the US will be busy hating itself and ripping apart their country for the next decade(s).
The US is gone, what we currently see is just the deadly wounded animal jumping around in panic, injuring everyone coming too close.
Frightening.
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there is a easy fix for this. (Score:1)
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Overwhelming Ineptitude (Score:2)
The people in charge of these things must be fumbling idiots.
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The people in charge of these things must be fumbling idiots.
Yeah pretty much. Someone correct me if i am wrong but i think a lot of time they are retired volunteers. Peoples grandparents getting out of the house. apparently they safeguard the security of our elections.
I hear some of them might be republicans too, to make things worse.
Voting machines is giving up on democracy (Score:1)
When a President Cannot Admit Russian Hacking (Score:2)
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Nothing substantial was done by Russian hackers. Nothing substantial came of any facebook posts, that's not how people decide to vote. Climb down from the ceiling, your Red Scare paranoia is silly
Exposed How? (Score:1)
Wasn't the box of network cards a hint? (Score:2)
If these machines are meant to not be connected to the internet, don't give them network interfaces. They're special builds, not general purpose machines. If you use a general purpose motherboard, use a glue-gun or pliers when building the machines.
(stage left, a cry of "software updates")