Iranian, Chinese Computers Also Discovered to Have Been Hacking D.C. Internet Voting System

[BradBlog]

Source: BRAD BLOG



Iranian, Chinese Computers Also Discovered to Have Been Hacking D.C. Internet Voting System
Startling testimony offered by the U. of Michigan computer science professor whose team penetrated D.C.'s 'pilot program' server for what was to have been a live election beginning in just days...

A University of Michigan computer scientist and his team were not the only ones attempting to hack the Internet Vote scheme that Washington D.C. had planned to roll out for actual use with military and overseas voters in this November's mid-term election.

According to testimony given to a D.C. City Council committee last Friday by J. Alex Halderman, asst. professor of electrical engineering and computer science at University of Michigan, hackers from Iran and China were also attempting to access the very same network infrastructure, even as his own team of students had successfully done so, taking over the entirety of the Internet Voting system which had been opened for a first-of-its-kind live test.

(See our report last week on details of what had already been disclosed about Halderman's startling hack prior to last Friday's hearing.)

"While we were in control of these systems we observed other attack attempts originating from computers in Iran and China," Halderman testified. "These attackers were attempting to guess the same master password that we did. And since it was only four letters long, they would likely have soon succeeded."

The revelations of the intrusion attempts from China and Iran, however, would not be the only new, previously unreported bombshells Halderman offered during his Friday testimony. Not by a long shot…

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8118


Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8118

[Jackpine Radical]

1. I spose it's cheaper than having to buy the election.

[RKP5637]

3. Frankly, it's bordering on a lost cause in this country anymore, the stupid is so great. n/t

[RKP5637]

2. This defines even a new level of stupid - 4 letter passwords. WTF

:wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

[KurtNYC]

7. it was the default password left unchanged !

"This password we were able to look up in the owner's manual for the piece of equipment. "

[RKP5637]

8. Absolutely incredible. The incompetence is so over the top I'm actually at

a loss for words.

[KurtNYC]

4. but he who hacks last hack best

this begs the question, since the system is so wide open doesn't that mean that they don't give a rat's butt bc they will fix the vote in some other manner, eg. they will override whatever the real voters, the chinese hackers and the iranians do in the end.

[glitch]

6. Ayup. Irrelevant until they get to the central tabulators' published tally. nt

[msongs]

5. no biggee the democratic party USA Inc is cool with it. nt

[RKP5637]

9. Yeah, USA, Inc. to the highest bidder. n/t

[Rex]

10. They had a four letter password? I think America is going to the dogs.

What a fucking joke of a country I now live in. Amazing, we will never know if we actually live in a real democracy ever again.

2000 fucked us all over and is the gift that keeps on giving. :(

[RKP5637]

11. Yep, going to the dogs as in WOLF for a password. This is the most

off the wall F'ed thing I've heard yet. Where do they get these fools from. It's so lame. it's beyond words. Each day I'm thinking more and more we will never dig ourselves out of this. As some have said, it's hard to soar like an eagle when you're flying along in formation with a bunch of turkeys.

[apacherose]

12. hahahah woohoo Halderman!

This guy was my professor for Computer and Network Security during 2010 winter semester, my last at UM Engineering. He is a BEAST, and has hacked some pretty tough problems, but from the sound of this, he barely had to lift a finger to compromise their "security".

Really does beg the question of whether these people are even trying.

[Javaman]

13. We're still a democracy right?

nevermind, I'll have my choco-ration and my victory gin tonight to toast to our victories in eurasia.