Hi, Seems the much touted ‘tamper-proof' electronic voting machines (EVMs) aren't tamper-proof after all. Scientists at the University of Michigan say they have developed a technique to hack into Indian EVMs.
After connecting a home-made device to a machine, the researchers were able to change results by sending text messages from a mobile. Indian election officials are on record saying it would be very difficult even to get hold of a machine to tamper with their machines — as many as 1.4 million of which are used in each general election. A video posted on the internet by the researchers purportedly shows them connecting a home-made electronic device to one of the voting machines used in India. Professor J Alex Halderman, who led the project, said the device allowed them to change the results on the machine by sending it messages from a mobile phone. "We made an imitation display board that looks almost exactly like the real display in the machines," he said. "But underneath some of the components of the board, we hide a microprocessor and a Bluetooth radio. Our lookalike display board intercepts the vote totals that the machine is trying to display and replaces them with dishonest totals — basically whatever the bad guy wants to show up at the end of the election." In addition, they added a small microprocessor which they say can change the votes stored in the machine between the election and the vote-counting session. In India's EVMS, there is no software to manipulate - records of candidates and votes cast are stored on purpose-built computer chips. "Before the elections take place, the machine is set in the presence of the candidates and their representatives. These people are allowed to put their seal on the machine, and nobody can open the machine without breaking the seals," deputy election commissioner Alok Shukla said. The researchers said the paper and wax seals could be easily faked. However, for their system to have any impact they would need to install their microchips on many voting machines, no easy task when 1,368,430 were used in the last general election in 2009. Rop Gonggrijp, a security researcher from the Netherlands, said: "Such machines have already been abandoned in Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Florida (US) and many other places. India should follow suit."Gonggrijp added: "Computers can be programmed to count votes honestly. But since nobody can watch them, they might just as easily be programmed to count dishonestly." For More Information: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Tamper-proof-Scientists-show-EVMs-can-be-hacked/articleshow/5956051 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nforceit" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nforceit?hl=en-GB.
