:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: Diebold update ::

From Wired News:
E-Vote Protest Gains Momentum
By Kim Zetter

Swarthmore College students embroiled in a legal battle against voting machine-maker Diebold Election Systems have received a ground swell of support from universities and colleges nationwide.

The memos suggest the company knew about security problems with its voting machines long before it sold the machines to various states, including California, Georgia and, most recently, Maryland. The memos have popped up on numerous websites since August, despite attempts by Diebold to force ISPs and webmasters to remove them from the Internet.

Last week, Swarthmore students launched a civil disobedience campaign against Diebold after the company sent a student and the college's ISP a cease-and-desist letter demanding they remove the memos, which the student had posted online. Diebold cited copyright violations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA.

The Swarthmore campaign aims to keep one step ahead of Diebold's cease-and-desist letters by moving the memos and links to the memos from one computer and one website to another.

(Ivan Boothe, of Why War?) said his group had received supportive e-mails from lawyers and professors from various schools, as well as Swarthmore alumni. He is encouraging more students and schools to post links to the sites that contain the memos.

Members of a group in Maryland called the Campaign for Verifiable Voting is calling on officials in their state to amend its contract with Diebold to require machines recently purchased by the state to offer a voter-verifiable receipt. "We want integrity in our election process," said Robert Ferraro, director of the Maryland campaign. "If you're going to use these machines then the only way to verify is with a voter-verified paper trail. How can the electorate trust an election if you don't have the ability to do a recount?"

Activists also want voting machine manufacturers to open their voting systems to public scrutiny.

Since the companies are privately held, they are allowed to keep their software proprietary and closed to the public.

"The public should know how these machines work and be able to do independent analysis on them every step of the way," Boothe said. "A lot of us are still uncomfortable with private companies running something so basic to democracy."

posted by me

:: 10:51:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: On the road ::

From Wired:
Finding New Life on an Old Road
Ignoring the advice of a highway bureaucrat, a Wired News reporter and her photographer husband kiss the interstate goodbye. The pair will follow Route 1 from Maine to Florida in search of geek history and culture. By Michelle Delio.

posted by me

:: 9:30:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: A report from the spam wars ::

Firm Fined $2M in Calif. Anti-Spam Case

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A company accused of sending unsolicited bulk e-mail was fined $2 million by a judge Friday, the first such ruling under California's anti-spam law.

PW Marketing LLC and its owners, Paul Willis and Claudia Griffin, were also banned from owning, managing, or holding an economic interest in any company that advertises over the Internet without first notifying the attorney general. The injunction will remain in place for 10 years.

The company, which does not have a Web site and has been accused of operating under fictitious names, has sent millions of illegal, unsolicited e-mails advertising tools for spamming, including $39 how-to books and lists of e-mail addresses of California residents.

Prosecutors said PW Marketing violated the 1998 anti-spam law by sending unsolicited e-mail without a toll-free number for recipients to call to stop additional mailings. Its missives did not include a valid return address or the "ADV:" label to mark advertisements, which the state requires.

State attorneys also claimed the owners illegally tapped into computer users' network connections so the company could send e-mail that couldn't be traced back to its source.

posted by me

:: 3:51:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: "Geomagnetic Storm Hits Earth, Tweaking Power Grids" ::

A Reuters UK report

DENVER - The Earth's magnetic field was bombarded with extra energy from the Sun on Friday when a geomagnetic storm sent charged particles that affected electric utilities, airline communications and satellite navigation systems.

"We predicted it would be a mid-level storm, a G-3, and that's where it is," said Joe Kunches, chief of space weather operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colorado.

The storm started around 11 a.m. eastern time and is expected to last through the weekend, Kunches said.

posted by me

:: 2:21:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: "Investigators: Hussein Had No Nuclear Program" ::

A Washington Post report
By Barton Gellman

"Despite prewar claims, it is now clear Iraq had no active program to build a nuclear weapon."In their march to Baghdad on April 8, U.S. Marines charged past a row of eucalyptus trees that lined the boneyard of Iraq's thwarted nuclear dream. Sixty acres of warehouses behind the tree line, held under United Nations seal at Ash Shaykhili, stored machine tools, consoles and instruments from the nuclear weapons program cut short by the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Thirty miles to the north and west, Army troops were rolling through the precincts of the Nasr munitions plant. Inside, stacked in oblong wooden crates, were thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes.

That equipment, and Iraq's effort to buy more of it overseas, were central to the Bush administration's charge that President Saddam Hussein had resumed long-dormant efforts to build a nuclear weapon. The lead combat units had more urgent priorities that day, but they were not alone in passing the stockpiles by. Participants in the subsequent hunt for illegal arms said months elapsed without a visit to Nasr and many other sites of activity that President Bush had called "a grave and gathering danger."

According to records made available to The Washington Post and interviews with arms investigators from the United States, Britain and Australia, it did not require a comprehensive survey to find the central assertions of the Bush administration's prewar nuclear case to be insubstantial or untrue. Although Hussein did not relinquish his nuclear ambitions or technical records, investigators said, it is now clear he had no active program to build a weapon, produce its key materials or obtain the technology he needed for either.

Among the closely held internal judgments of the Iraq Survey Group, overseen by David Kay as special representative of CIA Director George J. Tenet, are that Iraq's nuclear weapons scientists did no significant arms-related work after 1991, that facilities with suspicious new construction proved benign, and that equipment of potential use to a nuclear program remained under seal or in civilian industrial use.

Most notably, investigators have judged the aluminum tubes to be "innocuous," according to Australian Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Meekin, who commands the Joint Captured Enemy Materiel Exploitation Center, the largest of a half-dozen units that report to Kay. That finding is pivotal, because the Bush administration built its case on the proposition that Iraq aimed to use those tubes as centrifuge rotors to enrich uranium for the core of a nuclear warhead.

posted by me

:: 2:18:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: RE Iraq ::

From Reuters UK:
Thousands protest Iraq policy in U.S
By Niala Boodhoo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thousands have rallied in Washington to protest U.S. policy in Iraq, the first major demonstration since President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in the war on Iraq.

"We need to make President Bush realise that our children are being killed," Fernando de Solar Suarez said on Saturday at a rally near the Washington Monument, where the crowd later planned to march to the White House.

Suarez's son, a Marine, was killed in Iraq on March 27.

Guerrillas fighting the U.S.-led occupation have killed 108 U.S. soldiers since May 1, when Bush declared major combat in Iraq over.

Peace activists, many carrying placards, said increasing concerns about casualties in Iraq have spurred the U.S. anti-war movement back into action after months of relative quiet. "Iraq=Vietnam," one placard read. "Money for Jobs, not for War," said another.

posted by me

:: 2:52:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Geomagnetic Storm ::

From MSNBC.com:
Solar storm sweeps over Earth
Sunspot unleashes charged particles; level of disruption is in line with forecasts

Oct. 24 — A strong dose of space weather hit Earth on Friday — but the initial storm of charged particles from the sun wasn’t enough to endanger power grids, as feared. The event is presenting a nice opportunity to view sunspots, though safe viewing techniques must be employed to prevent eye damage. Check for updates as the day goes on.

posted by me

:: 1:21:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: /. ::

You can read the Slashdot Diebold-related discussion here.

posted by me

:: 12:23:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: More Diebold stuff ::

BlackBoxVoting.org has posted Chapter 11 of their book... "Black Box Voting." =)

Here you go:

CHAPTER 11: Unauthorized Diebold vote replacement led to TV networks calling race for Bush

If you strip away the partisan rancor over the 2000 election, you are left with the undeniable fact that a presidential candidate conceded the election to his opponent based on a second card (card #3) that mysteriously appeared, subtracted 16,022 votes from Al Gore, and in some still undefined way, added 4,000 erroneous votes to George W. Bush, then, just as mysteriously, disappears.

posted by me

:: 12:07:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Diebold memo update ::

A Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons statement:
Diebold memos removed from Swarthmore servers

The SCDC can no longer host the controversial Diebold memos. Why-War continues to make the memos available by linking them. SCDC is, however, unable to link to Why-War.

The memos were removed from the SCDC web site at approximately 6:30 pm on Wednesday the 23rd.

The SCDC is investigating its legal options to fight Diebold's allegations of copyright infringement.

posted by me

:: 12:03:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: RE Iraq ::

From Editor & Publisher:
Press Underreports Wounded in Iraq
Few Newspapers Tally Injuries, Accidents
By Seth Porges

NEW YORK -- When newspapers reported this week on poor medical and living conditions for Americans injured in Iraq, it might have come as a shock for some readers. For months, the press has barely mentioned non-fatal casualties or the severity of their wounds.

E&P reported in July that while deaths in combat are often tallied by newspapers, the many non-combat troop deaths in Iraq are virtually ignored. It turns out that newspaper readers have also been shortchanged in getting a sense of the number of troops injured, in and out of battle.

"There could be some inattention to [the number of injured troops]," said Philip Bennett, Washington Post assistant managing editor of the foreign desk. "And obviously if there is, it should be corrected. Soldiers getting wounded is part of the reality of conflict on the ground. I think if you were to find or discover that those figures are being overlooked, that would be something we'd want to correct."

Few newspapers routinely report injuries in Iraq, beyond references to specific incidents. Since the war began in March, 1,927 soldiers have been wounded in Iraq, many quite severely. (The tally is current as of Oct. 20.) Of this number, 1,590 were wounded in hostile action, and 337 from other causes. About 20% of the injured in Iraq have suffered severe brain injuries, and as many as 70% "had the potential for resulting in brain injury," according to an Oct. 16 article in The Boston Globe.

Current injury statistics were easily obtained by E&P through U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon, so getting the numbers is no longer a problem. According to Lawrence F. Kaplan, author of an article on injured troops in the Oct. 13 issue of , this information has only recently been readily accessible.The New Republic

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 4:59:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Malcolm, far left of the middle ::

From Wired Magazine:
8-Bit Punk
Malcolm McLaren, the subculture hacker who created the Sex Pistols, discovers the new underground sound. It's called chip music. Can you play lead Game Boy?

posted by me

:: 11:02:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: "Plumbing Depths of Data Mining" ::

From Wired News
By Noah Shachtman

WASHINGTON -- On this, everyone in the gold-tinged, eagle-frescoed Senate conference room agreed: Federal authorities badly want to be able to comb the data trails of ordinary people in order to spot terrorists. But what -- if any -- limits should be put on that frighteningly invasive power? A panel of lawmakers, think tankers, data miners and civil libertarians assembled here Tuesday couldn't even begin to make up their minds.

Congress has yanked the funding for Terrorism Information Awareness, the Pentagon's notorious überdatabase effort. But research into TIA-like projects continues, essentially unrestricted. Tomes of regulations tell spooks and cops and g-men how they can amass intelligence and gather evidence. But much of the data mined by these children of TIA -- like itineraries, school transcripts and credit card receipts -- might not fall under those traditional definitions. There's only a vague sense that these database-combing programs can't be allowed to grow out of control.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 10:24:00 AM [+] ::
...

23 skiddoo...

me

:: 1:26:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: From Why War? With Love ::

Excerpts from the Diebold Documents :

“Elections are not rocket science. Why is it so hard to get things right! I have never been at any other company that has been so miss [sic] managed.” [source]

“I have become increasingly concerned about the apparent lack of concern over the practice of writing contracts to provide products and services which do not exist and then attempting to build these items on an unreasonable timetable with no written plan, little to no time for testing, and minimal resources. It also seems to be an accepted practice to exaggerate our progress and functionality to our customers and ourselves then make excuses at delivery time when these products and services do not meet expectations.” [source]

“I feel that over the next year, if the current management team stays in place, the Global [Election Management System] working environment will continue to be a chaotic mess. Global management has and will be doing the best to keep their jobs at the expense of employees. Unrealistic goals will be placed on current employees, they will fail to achieve them. If Diebold wants to keep things the same for the time being, this will only compound an already dysfunctional company. Due to the lack of leadership, vision, and self-preserving nature of the current management, the future growth of this company will continue to stagnate until change comes.” [source]

“[T]he bugzilla historic data recovery process is complete. Some bugs were irrecoverably lost and they will have to be re-found and re-submitted, but overall the loss was relatively minor.” [source]

“28 of 114 or about 1 in 4 precincts called in this AM with either memory card issues "please re-insert", units that wouldn't take ballots - even after recycling power, or units that needed to be recycled. We reburned 7 memory cards, 4 of which we didn't need to, but they were far enough away that we didn't know what we'd find when we got there (bad rover communication).” [source]

“If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.” [source]

“I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022 when it was uploaded. Will someone please explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of standing here "looking dumb".” [source]

“[...] while reading some of Paranoid Bev’s scribbling.” [source]

“Johnson County, KS will be doing Central Count for their mail in ballots. They will also be processing these ballots in advance of the closing of polls on election day. They would like to log into the Audit Log an entry for Previewing any Election Total Reports. They need this, to prove to the media, as well as, any candidates & lawyers, that they did not view or print any Election Results before the Polls closed. However, if there is a way that we can disable the reporting functionality, that would be even better.” [source] (emphasis added)

“4K Smart cards which had never been previously programmed are being recognized by the Card Manager as manager cards. When a virgin card from CardLogix is inserted into a Spyrus (have tried CM-0-2-9 and CM-1-1-1) the prompt "Upgrade Mgr Card?" is displayed. Pressing the ENTER key creates a valid manager card. This happens in Admin mode and Election mode.” [source]


PRESS RELEASE

DIEBOLD TARGETED WITH ELECTRONIC CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
Swarthmore, Pa. — Defending the right of a fair, democratic election, Why War? and the Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons (SCDC) announced today that they are rejecting Diebold Elections Systems’ cease and desist orders and are initiating a legal electronic civil disobedience campaign that will ensure permanent public access to the controversial leaked memos.

dieboldes.com

Diebold voting machines are used in 37 states and provide zero security against election fraud.

Earlier this week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that it will defend the right of Online Privacy Group, the Internet service provider for San Francisco Indymedia, to host links to the controversial memos. Going one step further, Why War? and SCDC members are the first to publicly refuse to comply with Diebold’s cease and desist order by continually providing access to the documents.

“These memos indicate that Diebold, which counts the votes in 37 states, knowingly created an electronic system which allows anyone with access to the machines to add and delete votes without detection,” Why War? member Micah explained.
Although the reasons for individual engagement in the civil disobedience vary, the consensus between the two groups is that the public availability of these documents must be protected at any cost — they are crucial to the functioning of democracy.
Thus, through active, legal electronic civil disobedience, Why War? and SCDC will bring to light the usually silent acts of suppression and censorship. The result will be a permanent and public mirror of the memos: documents whose public existence challenges the assumed presence of democracy in America.

The documents are currently available here:
http://why-war.com/memos/
More information about the campaign of electronic civil disobedience:
http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html
Electronic Frontier Foundation press release:
http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/20031016_eff_pr.php
Media inquiries: media@why-war.com

posted by me

:: 2:50:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Another Diebold internal memo ::

RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To:
Subject: RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)
From: "Ian S. Piper"
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 14:55:06 -0600
Importance: Normal
In-reply-to:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I agree. Steve Ricke's sequence of events only relates to item 1 and how the memory card may have been reset. I thought it might shed some light on the subject.

Ian
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of John McLaurin
Sent: January 18, 2001 2:45 PM
To: support@gesn.com
Subject: RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)


There are two separate issues/problems that are getting combined in this stream.



– a check sum error occurred which the poll worker reset and continued counting the card “did not” require downloading before be reset. She never reran the previously counted ballots and this resulted in some negative PR post election. So that is Lana’s primary question, how did this happen? Ken explanation sounds like a good one and will not require a line for VTS if we can ever get to GEMS.


– the negative numbers on media display occurred when Lana attempted to reupload a card or duplicate card. Sophia and Tab may be able to shed some light here, keeping in mind that the boogie man may me reading our mail. Do we know how this could occur?








-----Original Message-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Ian S. Piper
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 3:35 PM
To: support@gesn.com
Subject: RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)



Steve Ricke has been running tests on a specific unit from Seminole. He had a checksum error occur and had the same result of the card resetting to pre-election mode and being able to reset for election mode and continue. After that one error, he has since run thousands of ballots through without a repeat of the error. The original audit report for the Seminole corrupted memory card showed that it had experienced the same error when Mickey Martin and company were recounting ballots on November 9, 2000. Still testing.



Below is the sequence of events for this error. Hope it helps.



Ian



Ran test using memory card and accu-vote (Ser.# 71586) which had been corrupted in Seminole County, Florida.
Ran three 2000 ballot tests in election mode in McKinney.
Unit failed only once which was during the second 2000 ballot test (at about 1300 ballots),
Message on display "Corrupt count see official",
Pressed YES and NO buttons several seconds each with no change of message,
Turned unit OFF, then ON- resulted in "Please reinsert memory card" message,
Repeated turning unit OFF then ON with the same message result,
Reinserted card (Power ON) message displayed now "counter error ok to continue?",
if answered NO, returns to "Please reinsert memory card" message,
If answered YES, then message displayed is "Clear counters and recount?",
If answered YES, card is reset to pre-election mode and displays "Test ballots?",
We set card back into election mode. Ran another 2000 ballots without failure.
Will continue to try with other cards and accu-votes from other counties.

Steve Ricke

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of John McLaurin
Sent: January 18, 2001 1:56 PM
To: support@gesn.com
Subject: RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)

Thanks Guy, - the pollworker did restart the unit and eventually put the unit back in election mode. It did not require redownloading the card. Am I missing something in your explanation to understand this?



John



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Guy Lancaster
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 2:41 PM
To: Support
Subject: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)



This is an overview on what memory card checksum errors are. Exactly what causes them is a separate question.

The memory card is very simply a programmable memory device with a battery backup. The Accu-Vote accesses this memory directly. If something goes wrong when the Accu-Vote is writing new data to the memory card or if the Accu-Vote crashes (as computers have been known to do) and writes to random memory locations, then the data on the memory card may be corrupted (nasty word I know but it fits). All this means is that the data is modified in an unintentional manner. This could also happen without an Accu-Vote through static discharge or some types of radiation (i.e. old airport scanners, cosmic rays???).

There are several mechanisms that we could use to detect this. We use the simplest of these which is to treat the data as a series of numbers and store totals of sets of those numbers as separate data known as checksums. If the data has been modified without updating the checksums, then the checksums will fail to add up.

The Accu-Vote keeps three different types of checksums for three different classes of data. These are text, counters, and precinct. The text checksums cover all the titles and names that are used mostly just for printing reports. Since the text data does not affect the other operations, we check it only occasionally and we allow most operations to continue after a warning.

The counters and precinct data are considered critical and the Accu-Vote is largely inoperable when these checksums fail. We do support the option to clear the counters if only they have been affected and then counting may be restarted. However there is no way to recover from corruption of the precinct data other than to clear and re-download the memory card.

All checksums are validated upon insertion of a memory card or at power on. Thus this is the most common time to detect problems. However the counter and precinct checksums are validated every time a new ballot is scanned. If an error is detected, counting is aborted.

Now to Lana's questions. The above should answer everything other than why erroneous data managed to upload. I see two possible explanations. One is that the data was corrupted after the checksums were validated. In this case the errors would show the next time the checksums were checked. The other possibility is the miniscule chance that the erroneous data managed to add up to the correct checksum. The checksums are stored as totals ranging from 0 to 65535 so the chance of this happening are less than 60,000 to 1 just based on that. Other factors add to this to make it extremely unlikely. However in this case the card would not later show checksum errors.

So John, can you satisfy Lana's request from this? I can't without more details.

Guy

John McLaurin wrote:

Please see below and let me know what you think. Tab, one of these issues
we discussed - it's the one were we printed the audit report showing the
check sum error and the poll worker restarting the unit.

Please let me know what you guys think.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: Lana Hires [mailto:lhires@co.volusia.fl.us]
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 8:07 AM
To: jmglobal@earthlink.net; Glanca@ges.com
Cc: Deanie Lowe
Subject: 2000 November Election

Hi Nel, Sophie & Guy (you to John),
I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have
been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216
gave Al Gore a minus 16022 when it was uploaded. Will someone please
explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of
standing here "looking dumb". I would appreciate an explanation on why the
memory cards start giving check sum messages. We had this happen in several
precincts and one of these precincts managed to get her memory card out of
election mode and then back in it, continued to read ballots, not realizing
that the 300+ ballots she had read earlier were no longer stored in her
memory card . Needless to say when we did our hand count this was
discovered.
Any explantations you all can give me will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks bunches,
Lana


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow-Ups:
RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)
From: "Ian S. Piper"
Re: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)
From: "Talbot Iredale"
References:
RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)
From: "Ian S. Piper"
Prev by Date: RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)
Next by Date: RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election)
Index(es):
Chronological
Thread

:: 2:23:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: A Diebold internal memo ::

This one's good:

RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To:
Subject: RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access
From: "Nel Finberg"
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 14:48:16 -0700
Importance: Normal
In-reply-to:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the response, Ken. For now Metamor accepts the requirement to restrict the server password to authorized staff in the jurisdiction, and that it should be the responsibility of the jurisdiction to restrict knowledge of this password. So no action is necessary in this matter, at this time.

Nel
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Ken Clark
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 9:55 AM
To: support@gesn.com
Subject: RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access


Its a tough question, and it has a lot to do with perception. Of course everyone knows perception is reality.

Right now you can open GEMS' .mdb file with MS-Access, and alter its contents. That includes the audit log. This isn't anything new. In VTS, you can open the database with progress and do the same. The same would go for anyone else's system using whatever database they are using. Hard drives are read-write entities. You can change their contents.

Now, where the perception comes in is that its right now very *easy* to change the contents. Double click the .mdb file. Even technical wizards at Metamor (or Ciber, or whatever) can figure that one out.

It is possible to put a secret password on the .mdb file to prevent Metamor from opening it with Access. I've threatened to put a password on the .mdb before when dealers/customers/support have done stupid things with the GEMS database structure using Access. Being able to end-run the database has admittedly got people out of a bind though. Jane (I think it was Jane) did some fancy footwork on the .mdb file in Gaston recently. I know our dealers do it. King County is famous for it. That's why we've never put a password on the file before.

Note however that even if we put a password on the file, it doesn't really prove much. Someone has to know the password, else how would GEMS open it. So this technically brings us back to square one: the audit log is modifiable by that person at least (read, me). Back to perception though, if you don't bring this up you might skate through Metamor.

There might be some clever crypto techniques to make it even harder to change the log (for me, they guy with the password that is). We're talking big changes here though, and at the moment largely theoretical ones. I'd doubt that any of our competitors are that clever.

By the way, all of this is why Texas gets its sh*t in a knot over the log printer. Log printers are not read-write, so you don't have the problem. Of course if I were Texas I would be more worried about modifications to our electronic ballots than to our electron logs, but that is another story I guess.

Bottom line on Metamor is to find out what it is going to take to make them happy. You can try the old standard of the NT password gains access to the operating system, and that after that point all bets are off. You have to trust the person with the NT password at least. This is all about Florida, and we have had VTS certified in Florida under the status quo for nearly ten years.

I sense a loosing battle here though. The changes to put a password on the .mdb file are not trivial and probably not even backward compatible, but we'll do it if that is what it is going to take.

Ken


From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Nel Finberg
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 11:32 PM
To: support
Subject: alteration of Audit Log in Access


Jennifer Price at Metamor (about to be Ciber) has indicated that she can access the GEMS Access database and alter the Audit log without entering a password. What is the position of our development staff on this issue? Can we justify this? Or should this be anathema?

Nel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

References:
RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access
From: "Ken Clark"

posted by me

:: 2:21:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: e-Voting update ::

From Wired News:
Students Fight E-Vote Firm
By Kim Zetter

A group of students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania has launched an "electronic civil disobedience" campaign against voting machine maker Diebold Election Systems.

The students are protesting efforts by Diebold to prevent them and other website owners from linking to some 15,000 internal company memos that reveal the company was aware of security flaws in its e-voting software for years but sold the faulty systems to states anyway. The memos were leaked to voting activists and journalists by a hacker who broke into an insecure Diebold FTP server in March.

Diebold has been sending out cease-and-desist letters to force websites and ISPs to take down the memos, which the company says were stolen from its server in violation of copyright law. It has been using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, to force ISPs to take down sites hosting the memos or sites containing links to the memos.

Bev Harris, owner of the Black Box Voting site and author of a book on the electronic voting industry, was one of the first people to post the memos before a letter from Diebold threatened her with litigation.

Half a dozen other people hosting the memos in the United States, Canada, Italy and New Zealand also have received letters forcing them to take the material down.

Why War?, a nonprofit student organization at Swarthmore, and the Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons, also composed of Swarthmore students, announced plans to defy Diebold and their college ISP.

Why War? posted the memos on its website about two weeks ago but moved them to a student's computer after the college ISP received a cease-and-desist letter.

The college notified the student, who wishes to remain anonymous, that it would disconnect his Internet service if he didn't remove the memos. But Luke Smith, a sophomore, said students are planning to bypass that threat by hosting the memos on different machines. Each time one machine is shut down by Diebold, they will move the memos to another machine, passing them from student to student.

posted by me

:: 9:36:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: RE "The Future of Iraq" ::

From The NY Times via The Lakeland Ledger online:
State Dept. Study Foresaw Trouble Now Plaguing Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and JOEL BRINKLEY

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 A yearlong State Department study predicted many of the problems that have plagued the American-led occupation of Iraq, according to internal State Department documents and interviews with administration and Congressional officials.

Beginning in April 2002, the State Department project assembled more than 200 Iraqi lawyers, engineers, business people and other experts into 17 working groups to study topics ranging from creating a new justice system to reorganizing the military to revamping the economy.

Their findings included a much more dire assessment of Iraq's dilapidated electrical and water systems than many Pentagon officials assumed. They warned of a society so brutalized by Saddam Hussein's rule that many Iraqis might react coolly to Americans' notion of quickly rebuilding civil society.

Several officials said that many of the findings in the $5 million study were ignored by Pentagon officials until recently, although the Pentagon said they took the findings into account. The work is now being relied on heavily as occupation forces struggle to impose stability in Iraq.

posted by me

:: 10:11:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: Freebies: Steal This! ::

Here's an excerpt from Wallace Wang's book,
"Steal This Computer Book 3"
Published by No Starch Press, SF

Chapter 17:
WEB BUGS, ADWARE, POP-UPS & SPYWARE

"In the world of advertising, nothing is really free. When you listen to a radio or watch a television show, advertisers pay the costs and earn the right to broadcast their messages any time they want. Most people tolerate radio and television advertising since they've grown accustomed to its constant interruptions."

Continued here.

But first, remember to buy some delicious ORANGE DRINK! Mmmmmmm. IT ROCKS.

OK, and now for a great quote:
"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards." -Aldous Huxley

posted by me

:: 1:09:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: RE Rushes & Rush ::

A comment from an aohell board:
> "For the most part the partisens may take the oppurtunity to kick him ..."

If you wish to effectively counter this, post Rush's many, many statements over the years RE how those afflicted with drug addiction should be treated.

Personally, and from my own experience with Rush's show, I tend to think his previous positions on these issues would tend to be condemnatory. BUT, I'm willing to be fair and take a balanced look at his record.

Anyone willing to assist in setting straight the legion of liberals that are calling Limbaugh a hypocrite?

I personally wear the scarlet letter "I" (for independent) and am willing to listen.

* * * * * *

Here's a start, although I cannot verify the authenticity of the quote:

"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up" -- Rush Limbaugh

posted by me

:: 8:09:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Declan's latest ::

From CNET News.com:
My (brief) career as an ISP
October 10, 2003, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

The FBI is convinced that I'm an Internet service provider.
It's no joke. A letter the FBI sent on Sept. 19 ordered me to "preserve all records and other evidence" relating to my interviews of Adrian Lamo, the so-called homeless hacker, who's facing two criminal charges related to an alleged intrusion into The New York Times' computers.

There are a number of problems with this remarkable demand, most of which I'll get to in a moment, but the biggest is the silliest. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Howard Leadbetter II used the two-page letter to inform me that under Section 2703(f) of the Electronic Communication Transactional Records Act, I must "preserve these items for a period of 90 days" in anticipation of a subpoena. So far I haven't received such a subpoena, which would invoke a lesser-known section of the USA Patriot Act.

Leadbetter needs to be thwacked with a legal clue stick. The law he's talking about applies only to Internet service providers, not reporters.

(Read more)

:: 10:52:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: The Plame Affair ::

The Novak Affair
How I broke the CIA-leak story, and why nobody noticed
From LA Weekly News
by David Corn

I fought the Republican spin machine, and the Republican spin machine won.

The battlefield was a Fox News Channel studio. I had been booked to discuss my new book (plug, plug: The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception), but I was also told I would be talking about the Wilson-CIA-leak affair. That was natural, for (plug, plug) I was the first journalist to report that a July 14 piece by conservative columnist Robert Novak was possible evidence of a possible White House crime. In that article, Novak, citing “senior administration officials,” disclosed that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson was a CIA operative. Wilson had challenged the administration on its Iraq policy — particularly its use of the (now infamous and still unproven) claim that Saddam Hussein had been uranium shopping in Niger — and the column seemed to be an administration effort to undermine or punish Wilson. The leakers also may have broken a federal law prohibiting the identification of covert officers. I noted that in The Nation two days after the Novak column appeared. But the leak did not become major news until two months later, when the CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate the White House.

posted by me

:: 5:25:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Challenging the RIAA ::

From Wired:
Charter: Hands Off Song Swappers
Broadband service provider Charter Communications sues the Recording Industry Association of America to block it from getting names of about 150 of Charter's customers suspected of file trading.

posted by me

:: 11:57:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: RE Tony ::

From The New York Times:
Blair Doubted Iraq Had Arms, Ex-Aide Says
By WARREN HOGE

LONDON — Prime Minister Tony Blair conceded privately that Iraq did not have quickly deployable weapons of mass destruction as the British government was claiming as justification for war, says Robin Cook, a former foreign secretary.

Mr. Cook, who quit his post as leader of the House of Commons in March because of Britain's decision to join in the American-led war in Iraq, says Mr. Blair also made it clear to him in a conversation two weeks before combat began that he did not believe Saddam Hussein's weapons posed a "real and present danger" to Britain.

Mr. Cook's account was made public in extracts published in The Sunday Times of London from "Point of Departure," a book based on his diary entries from the period.

An intelligence dossier published in September 2002 argued that Iraq had unconventional weapons that could be used within 45 minutes of an order being given. Mr. Cook said that he had no reason to doubt that Mr. Blair believed the claim at the time it was made but that in their conversation on March 5, Mr. Blair told him the weapons were only battlefield munitions and could not be assembled by Mr. Hussein for quick use because of "all the effort he has put into concealment."

Mr. Cook wrote, "If No. 10 accepted that Saddam had no real W.M.D. which he could credibly use against city targets and if they themselves believed that he could not reassemble his chemical weapons in a credible time scale for use on the battlefield, just how much of a threat did they really think Saddam represented?"

posted by me

:: 9:33:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: Another aohell poll ::

Do you think Bush has the nation on the right track?

Definitely: 29% (106,974)
Somewhat: 28% (105,808)
Not at all: 42% (156,216)

posted by me

:: 9:15:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird:

Hurricane Isabel roared through Virginia Beach, Va., in September, inflicting serious property damage, despite public calls for prayer to keep it away by prominent resident Rev. Pat Robertson, whose Christian Broadcasting Network is headquartered there. (In 1998, Robertson condemned the city of Orlando, Fla., for sponsoring a Gay Days festival, and warned that the city could be torn up during the subsequent hurricane season, as God punishes those who promote homosexuality. Instead, the first hurricane of that season (Bonnie) made a direct hit on Virginia Beach.) [The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk), 9-16-03]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

posted by me

:: 10:27:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: RE Dubya ::

From The New York Times:
Poll Shows Drop in Confidence on Bush Skill in Handling Crises
By TODD S. PURDUM and JANET ELDER

The public's confidence in President Bush's ability to deal wisely with an international crisis has slid sharply over the past five months, the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll has found. And a clear majority are also uneasy about his ability to make the right decisions on the nation's economy.

Over all, the poll found, Americans are for the first time more critical than not of Mr. Bush's ability to handle both foreign and domestic problems, and a majority say the president does not share their priorities. Thirteen months before the 2004 election, a solid majority of Americans say the country is seriously on the wrong track, a classic danger sign for incumbents, and only about half of Americans approve of Mr. Bush's overall job performance. That is roughly the same as when Mr. Bush took office after the razor-close 2000 election.

ALSO from the NYT:
NEWS ANALYSIS: ASSESSMENT
A Reckoning: Iraqi Arms Report Poses Political Test for Bush
By DAVID E. SANGER

The preliminary report delivered on Thursday by the chief arms inspector in Iraq forces the Bush administration to come face to face with this reality: that Saddam Hussein's armory appears to have been stuffed with precursors, potential weapons and bluffs, but that nothing found so far backs up administration claims that Mr. Hussein posed an imminent threat to the world.

While the report by the arms inspector, David Kay, is not final, and while the inspectors may yet come upon a cache of weapons, the preliminary findings support the claims of critics, including Democratic candidates, that Mr. Bush used dubious intelligence to justify his decision to go to war. At worst, these critics say, the usual caveats and cautions of the underlying intelligence reports were ignored in the rush to war.

Without question, the gap between what Mr. Bush said existed in Iraq and what Dr. Kay has failed to find will be argued about again and again as Americans discuss whether it was right to go into Iraq in the first place, and debate what to do now.

posted by me

:: 9:31:00 AM [+] ::
...

Hello good folks of the blog universe! Here's a letter that I received from MoveOn.org. Hmmm. Sounds a bit too much like moron.org. KIDDING. Quite simply, they do some cool things. If you find this latest Bush administration f-up as appalling as I do, here's your chance to do something about it:

* * * * *


Dear friend,

According to the Washington Post, "two top White House officials"
committed a high crime in the first weeks of July. They handed
over the identity of an American secret agent to journalists. They
blew her cover, risking the lives of colleagues and contacts and
possibly erasing years of intelligence work. Why? "Purely and
simply for revenge," an administration official told the Post.
The spy's husband was a vocal critic of the Iraq war.

The White House and the Justice Department has known about this
crime for months -- after all, the agent's identity was published
in scores of newspapers in early July. But until a few days ago,
they did nothing about it. And even now, President Bush has said
he has no plans to ask his staff whether they were connected to it.

Republicans contend that an investigation by the Justice Department
will reveal any wrongdoing. But Justice Department chief John
Ashcroft -- who was appointed by President Bush and who employed key
Bush advisor Karl Rove -- is hardly neutral. Already, there are
signs that the investigation will give the White House room to
cover the crime up.

The fact is that only under constant pressure will the truth come out.
If we don't speak up now, the investigation could be left in John
Ashcroft's hands, and the perpetrators and the crime could be swept
under the rug. Please join me and thousands of others in telling
John Ashcroft and Congress that you want a special prosecutor --
someone who isn't tied to the Bush Administration -- to investigate
this illegal and vindictive act. 

You can sign on to MoveOn.org's petition here.

THANKS.

posted by me

:: 7:38:00 PM [+] ::
...