Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Voting systems in New Jersey, Pennsylvania can be hacked using a number of different attacks, a network security expert has warned.
Under court order, Andrew Appel led a team of six scientists to assess the stability of the Sequoia AVC Advantage ballot machines.
In his report, he warned that systems can be hacked by physically removing firmware from the system, potentially allowing criminals to steal votes during elections.
"The fraud cannot practically be detected. There is no paper audit trail on this machine; all electronic records of the votes are under control of the firmware, which can manipulate them all simultaneously," he warned.
So too, coding errors in the machine's software can cause votes to be miscounted and allow for malicious users to commit fraud, Appel claimed.
Elsewhere, Betanews.com has noted that voting security has become a particularly pertinent security issue in the run up to the November presidential elections.
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