By Luther Weeks on February 6, 2014
Security researchers say they have developed an interesting trick to take over Gmail and Outlook.com email accounts – by shooting down victims’ logout requests even over a supposedly encrypted connection.
And their classic man-in-the-middle attack could be used to compromise electronic ballot boxes to rig elections, we’re told.
Posted in Internet Security Issues, Internet Voting, National
By Luther Weeks on October 7, 2013
In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel “disequilibrium”: frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc – Wikipedia
The state fails at protecting data, legislators to get lesson in Internet security, N.I.S.T experts say unsafe the Internet is not safe for voting, the N.S.A. and others can look at practically anything, yet local registrars, the Secretary of the State, and the State Military Department can protect Internet voting by Legislative decree.
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, Internet Security Issues, Internet Voting, Legislature2013
By Luther Weeks on July 25, 2013
In a recent Hartford Courant Op-Ed, Arthur House, chair of the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and previous Director of Communications of the Director of National Intelligence addressed cyber threats to public utilities. We cannot help but compare the concern of Mr. House for our utilities ability to protect the infrastructure, with the sure confidence of our Governor and Legislature in the ability of the Secretary of the State and local election officials to develop systems, at no cost, to make the Internet safe for online voting. Democracy is at least as important as the infrastructure.
Posted in Internet Security Issues, Legislature2013
By Luther Weeks on June 17, 2013
Tongue in cheek, we note that this may be a major redundancy in effort and expense by utility regulators, since the Legislature has mandated that the Secretary of the State and the Military Department come up with a plan to provide secure electronic voting to the military by October 1st. The Secretary is also mandated in that bill to not only come up with the plan but to implement it without any expenditure!
When we see everybody from the CIA to Lockheed Martin and the Bank of America being hacked, along with concerns for our grid from our utility regulators, it’s pure hubris to think that our elections could not be compromised.
Posted in Internet Security Issues, Legislature2013
By Luther Weeks on June 9, 2013
Even the cicadas must know by now that the U.S. is engaged in massive collection of data on phone calls, emails, web access, and banking transactions. Those who a week ago were criticized as ‘conspiracy theorists’ for claiming the Government had such massive secret spying programs will now be criticized as ‘naive’ for not knowing this was going on all along. What more can we say? What can we add that has relevance to elections and election integrity?
Posted in Internet Security Issues, Internet Voting, National
By Luther Weeks on March 17, 2013
Here in the land of steady habits, we are ready to move forward with blinders at the ready, apparently confident that our registrars, town clerks, and state IT department will never discover any attacks on on our voting systems, email systems, or fax machines.
Posted in Internet Security Issues, Legislature2013
By Luther Weeks on January 13, 2013
We and others have posted several times, debunking the frequently repeated statement that “If we can use ATMs and the Internet for banking, why can’t we use the internet for voting”. The answers are 1) Voting is a different application and riskier; and 2) Internet banking is not safe, banks loose billions to electronic fraud every year, yet it is less than they make and save using the Internet.
Posted in Internet Security Issues
By Luther Weeks on December 25, 2012
Another government testament to the risks we face with dependency on the Internet for vital systems. We hope in this particular case that the effort is actually increasing the safety of systems we all depend upon.
Posted in Internet Security Issues, National
By Luther Weeks on August 12, 2012
What value is an attack that everyone sees? That depends. Courts have been reluctant to grant re-votes, for good reasons. Results of a vote can depend strongly on the other races and issues on a ballot, get out the vote efforts, and even the weather.
Posted in Internet Security Issues, Internet Voting, National
By Luther Weeks on October 10, 2011
In this post, we address where Common Sense fails. Where what seems obvious to individuals and election officials is often counter to the facts or science. Those that are unfamiliar with technology and a specific area of science often overestimate how difficult or easy specific things are to accomplish.
Posted in Chain of Custody, Common Sense, CT, Electronic Vulnerability, FAQ, Internet Security Issues, Internet Voting, Skulduggery and Errors