hacking the election

Published: 2008-11-05. Last Updated: 2008-11-06 16:36:18 UTC
by donald smith (Version: 3)
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You probably have heard of voting machines that have various security issues.
This article isn't about that. In attempting to hack the election the "politically motivated"
have tried methods other then breaking into the voting machine infrastructure.

I have heard reports of automated phone calls, sms and seen email intended to convince
the receiver that they should vote the day after the election.
Why would you want to convince people to vote late, because that means they didn't
get to vote? People are great procrastinators given an option of doing something today or
doing something tomorrow many of us choose tomorrow;)

This is an email with headers that was sent to George Mason distribution list.

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To the Mason Community:

Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost


Brian Krebs does a good job of covering this here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/11/election_hoax_e-mail_sent_via.html

These tricks aren't new they are just upgraded for the Internet and the mass
messaging capabilities that has created.

This is a list of "dirty tricks" from the 2004 election.
http://www.flcv.com/dirtytrf.html

Putting flyers on the door is a bit risky, calling from your home phone is a bit risky,
sending sms spam, email spam, etc ... is fairly safe. Just do it from a compromised system
in another nation, via an open mail relay and chances are you'll never get caught (sigh).

 


UPDATE:
Thanks to our friend and fequent contributor Juha-Matti we have the text of the SMS's being sent
"Due to long lines if you are voting for Barack Obama you can vote tomorrow"
or
"Due to long lines, all Obama voters are asked to vote tomorrow".

The orginating phone number is reportedly 505-507-6041.
Link: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/bogus-robo-text.html

UPDATE2:

It appears both of the campaings were hacked.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581

"The computer systems of both the Obama and McCain campaigns were victims
of a sophisticated cyberattack by an unknown "foreign entity," prompting
a federal investigation, NEWSWEEK reports today."
 

Keywords: voter fraud
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