Last week we testified against a bill <page 9> which would have authorized online voting in Connecticut. We have been asking:
- Would each of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities be able to afford such systems and accomplish what Washington D.C. has not?
- Could Connecticut accomplish centrally what Washington D.C. has not?
An article in Government Security News reminds us to ask:
- Could any State or any City accomplish what the U.S. Government and the Defense Department has not?
- Could Connecticut or any or our 169 municipalities accomplish what the U.S. Government and the Defense Department has not?
“What we are doing now to secure cyberspace is not working,” a House subcommittee was told March 16 by James Lewis, director and a senior fellow in the Technology and Public Policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC…
Military establishments in some countries have the capability to launch a cyber attack on the United States…
He declared that cyber crime and cyber espionage are daily occurrences in the United States and are doing long-term damage to the nation’s economy and global competitiveness. What’s more, they set the stage for cyber attacks. “Some of our opponents use cyber criminals as mercenaries,” he said.
“Our most advanced opponents in cyber crime and cyber espionage can overpower even the most technologically sophisticated U.S. company,” he maintained.
It might take a lot to attack a highly secure military system, but it only took an accomplished professor and some graduate students a couple of days to attack the Washington D.C. voting system in a public test.
Update: 3/20/2011: For doubters, we learn today of a successful attack on a company that provides Internet encryption technology, RSA Security <read>
