Luther Weeks

Unfortunately, we took a shot that was pretty close last month!

By Luther Weeks on August 4, 2015

Last month, after a report of drone hacking, I speculated wildly, according to some:

My concern is that if cars can be hacked, why not police vehicles, especially, those armored military vehicles now in the hands of our local police?

“>Its even worse than we thought. A couple demonstrate graphically the hacking and controlling of a sniper rifle.

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Top Six Ways Hackers Could (have) Disrupt(ed) an Election

By Luther Weeks on July 30, 2015

The election system is particularly vulnerable because it involves a combination of state, local, and federal government agencies with their own systems, software, hardware, and security protocols. Often, government departments are running old “legacy” computer systems that are extremely vulnerable to malware and hacking; and even if they have new systems, these are often put into place without a comprehensive security audit and performance review.

Who exactly is in charge of securing these overlapping networks isn’t always clear in government either.

Posted in CT, Electronic Vulnerability, National | Leave a response

Wisconsin’s One-Up Connecticut moment?

By Luther Weeks on July 25, 2015

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants to replace their election watch dog agency, apparently because it investigated his campaign.

Yet Wisconsin’s Governor may not be that far ahead of Connecticut’s. Like Wisconsin our watch dog agencies were joined and weakened several years ago by Governor Malloy to “cut costs”. How is that going for us? It seems that the Governor is not out to do away with them, yet there has been some questionable attacks, just as the watchdog is working on investigating the Governor’s last campaign,

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Statistician battles government to determine whether vote count is flawed

By Luther Weeks on July 20, 2015

“Paper receipts are the obvious answer,Florida gave recounts a bad name. But there is something much worse than a recount: the utter inability to recount votes, and reconstruct voters’ true intent, in light of a serious computer error.”

Actually slightly worse and even more suspicious might be having paper ballots and being barred from using them to verify elections.

Posted in National, Post-Election Audits, Recounts/Recanvasses | Leave a response

Consensus Reached on Recommendations Toward the Future of Internet Voting

By Luther Weeks on July 15, 2015

The U.S. Vote Foundation has released a report on the feasibility and requirements for Internet voting. This is the result of about eighteen months of work by computer scientists, security experts, and election officials. The goal was to answer definitively once and for all if Internet voting was feasible today or in the future.

The short version is the Internet voting is not ready for prime time, not ready for democracy. Yet, it is possible in the future that a system may be developed which could provide safe Internet voting. The paper lays out the requirements and testing criteria for such a system.

(Internet voting includes online voting, email voting, and fax voting).

Posted in Internet Security Issues, Internet Voting, National, Reports | Leave a response

Top security official, spouts NonScience Nonsense

By Luther Weeks on July 10, 2015

Comey’s problem is the nearly universal agreement among cryptographers, technologists and security experts that there is no way to give the government access to encrypted communications without poking an exploitable hole that would put confidential data, as well as entities like banks and power grids, at risk.

Posted in Internet Security Issues, National, NonScienceNonsense | Leave a response

“Security online today, is not up to the task of online voting today.”

By Luther Weeks on July 2, 2015

My friend, Duncan Buell, sent along a .pdf with a blog post of his, Computer Security and the Risks of Online Voting, along with another blog post about drones Meet A.I. Joe

Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, Internet Security Issues, Internet Voting | Leave a response

The Power of Partnership: Do you know what your election officials have been watching?

By Luther Weeks on June 26, 2015

Direct from the Dominion web, a marketing video featuring Denver election officials.services from Dominion.

We recommend caution for election officials, along with concern and skepticism for voters and taxpayers.

Posted in Costs, Electronic Vulnerability, National | Leave a response

Aging Voting Machines Sitting Rusts for Hacking

By Luther Weeks on June 20, 2015

Over the last few years, we have provided many posts on the real risks of Internet voting. A new report and article highlighting that report, remind us all of the risks of voting machines in use several years ago: Hack the vote: Cyber experts say ballot machines easy targets

Reminder: We are still using those machines.

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Data Breach Today – Infinite Future Harm!

By Luther Weeks on June 15, 2015

From the Intercept, an explanation of the harm of data retention and theft: Data Theft Today Poses Indefinite Threat of “Future Harm”

We hear continuous claims that “I have nothing to hide, so who cares if they have my data”. Lets look at what might actually happen. The possibilities are endless.

Posted in Internet Security Issues, National | Leave a response