10 ways to HACK the Automated Elections

[The_Gadore]

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it's a given fact that any system can be hacked as long as you know a way to get inside...to get passed the security... but having an automated system is better than the manual... since this is a new procedure in voting, politicians with bad intentions would find it harder to look for a way to get through it... i'm sure the tech people must have designed a stricter form of security and validation for the data (of course)...

if all goes worse nga dali ra jud ma-sulod, then good news to programmers kay naa sila extra income this coming elections... hahahaha just joking aside... bitaw mas ok pa ni kay sa manual... kato kay klaro naman jud to nga naay panikas... kani ron bago kay wa pa man... go go go automated elections

[bugztronic]

bisag unsaon ma hack gihapon,

sayon ra gihapon iladon ang machine, tawo ra baya ang gabuhat ana..

[hulagway]

btaw sakto jud,,support lang jud ta sa ato bago systema. smartmatic has a lot of security guys doing their job,mga expert na sila..

[hulagway]

hehehehehehehehehe

[cliff_drew]

Everything they are saying is based entirely on THEORY not on an actual cracking of Smartmatic's system. Kung gusto gyud nila i-prove na ba, daghan na biya nga voting system na implement sa Smartmatic, how hard could it be for them to go to these places and crack the system just to prove their point? Easy man kaha i-hack! SO DO IT bah and stop complaining about a system that's been implemented and so far has never been cracked. Anything is hackable bitaw, in reality but its a question of improbability.

Computers can be hacked, does this mean businesses should stop using computers and go back to a paper system? Of course not. It's risk versus reward. In reality there are risks too in manual system anyway, and the risk vs reward there is so much worse than in an automated system, even one by the "evil foreigners" smartmatic. It seems ang mga dudahon dili lang gyud gusto sa Smartmatic kay foreigner sila, without considering their track record and also the motives of the opposition (who themselves want to push their own system, the so-called Open System, UNPROVEN and NEVER BEEN TRIED BEFORE system)...

Have you been checking Smartmatic's track records on holding automated voting on other countries? You may want to check out and read previous issues of Smartmatic.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/07...99s-shady-past
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/05...aise-questions


Let me just quote your question:

Computers can be hacked, does this mean businesses should stop using computers and go back to a paper system? Of course not. It's risk versus reward.

I think Filipinos are very happy on this automated system except for politicians who have personal intentions to degrade the system. But what makes this become an issue is the capability of the Smartmatic's AES to handle the national elections for 2010. Maybe you didn't remember the previous deal to a company (Mega Pacific) to hold the automated elections last 2004 which was nullified by the Supreme Court due to "clear violation of law and jurisprudence" and “reckless disregard of Comelec's own bidding rules and procedure in which the SC's decision states that the system had undeniably failed to pass eight critical requirements designed to safeguard the integrity of elections. If critics (group of computer experts) are not that too questionable, then we will experienced the first time automated election system failure in the Philippines and we've been paying millions in keeping these junks until now without using it. Now, for Smartmatic, we are paying billions (from Filipinos' taxes) to a system that never been pilot-tested prior the implementation.

Rigorous tests and source code review should be done to ensure the effectiveness of the machines. Question is, are we willing to pay junks again?

Untested and untried

Critics of Smartmatic/TIC also noted that the PCOS technology offered by the group is “an experimental unit since it has never been used before.” They expressed concern that an untried technology and possibly inferior components of the machine could make Smartmatic/ TIM’s machines vulnerable to failure and malfunction.

Comelec requires that the PCOS machines and election technology to be used in 2010 have already been used in previous elections.

The Smartmatic/TIM group said it will use “Smartmatic Auditable Election System (SAES) 1800” for the May 2010 polls. A quick check with Smartmatic’s website showed that this election technology boasts of a 99.99999 percent accuracy rate.

But a closer look would show that SAES 1800 might be a new product, and thus, has not undergone rigorous test. In Smartmatic's product page, SAES 1800 does not appear in the Portuguese and the French versions. Search engines do not provide additional reference to SAES 1800.

In its website, Smartmatic listed all the elections they have managed, but there was no reference to any project involving PCOS or the use of SAES 1800 election technology. One bidder said this is because Smartmatic’s technology is really DRE technology, which it had used in the ARMM elections.

Also, Smartmatic/TIM submitted a certificate of acceptance—one of Comelec’s technical requirements—addressed to Dominion Voting System, an election provider in Canada, not to Smartmatic/TIM.

The document, which certifies that the technology has been previously used in a statewide or nationwide election, was issued by election authorities in Canada, thus raising the suspicion that the SAES 1800 is actually a prototype of the voting machines used in Canada.

When other bidders noted the discrepancy, the Comelec special bids and awards committee said it would address the issue in the post-qualification stage.

We sought to interview an official of Smartmatic/TIM but the executive declined. The official said issues against the group would be addressed only after it is awarded the contract.

[raski]

Cliff_drew, automation being a man-made process is never going to be perfect. That is why they had the "chad" problem in the United States elections, but this does not mean that the United States should roll back automation or scrap the entire system and start over again. They would never do that, because they have the common sense to realize that it would lead to disaster.

At this point in time, everything said about Smartmatic is mere allegation, no one yet has been able to hack the system and no one yet has been able to prove, beyond theory, that the system can easily be hacked. In reality, there is no hack-proof system, if that is the standard being asked for by yourself and all the anti-Smartmatic people then it is best if we never automate, because your demands cannot be met by any system in existence today or in the future. By a reasonable standard though, it is enough that a system be difficult enough to hack as to make it infeasible for anyone attempting to hack it. Unless the contrary is proven, this is a safe assumption to make with any encrypted voting system.

So long story short, Smartmatic is not going to be a perfect system, but there has never been a perfect automated electoral system. But it is better than nothing and all the allegations that it is easy to hack are unfounded on facts only theory. We should not let the future of our democracy be threatened by OES sourgrapes. They would have you believe that their system is better but can offer no actual proof nor guarantees that it can't be tampered with either. Besides which, the OES that the opponents are supporting is not even fully automated, only the relaying of the canvass is electronic, the actual tallying and counting are still manual! Wow, way to open the door to business as usual trapos and cheats. This OES system is savage and barbaric, it will make the Philippines the butt of jokes internationally. Talk about money down the drain, that is OES...

[darkdevil]

ka mga negative sa mga tao oi...

[bulad_pinikas]

mao nga dili ta ka move-on coz puro ta maayong laki tanan.

puro lang ta ayaw ana coz bati. mao nay sakit sa pinoy...

unya naamoy mas nindot pa sa automated nga election ?

[vahnhelsing]

mahack jud diay na?

[hulagway]

hehe pwde yata pro lisud jud kaayo na,,maayo na cila ana specially kung security na ang hisgotan ,,kani gung uban manakao lang gani sa computer,,
abi nila ingana lang na kadali mg hack sa system..