* When the Argonne National Laboratory says there’s a real problem, I tend to pay attention…
It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.
Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.
“We believe these man-in-the-middle attacks are potentially possible on a wide variety of electronic voting machines,” said Roger Johnston, leader of the assessment team “We think we can do similar things on pretty much every electronic voting machine.” […]
Almost all voters in states like Georgia, Maryland, Utah and Nevada, and the majority of voters in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Texas, will vote on DREs on Election Day in 2012, says Flaherty. Voters in major municipalities such as Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Pittsburgh will also line up in next year’s election to use DREs of the type hacked by the Argonne National Lab. […]
“This is a fundamentally very powerful attack and we believe that voting officials should become aware of this and stop focusing strictly on cyber [attacks],” says Vulnerability Assessment Team member John Warner. “There’s a very large physical protection component of the voting machine that needs to be addressed.”
The team’s video demonstrates how inserting the inexpensive electronic device into the voting machine can offer a “bad guy” virtually complete control over the machine. A cheap remote control unit can enable access to the voting machine from up to half a mile away. […]
This type of attack is particularly troubling because the manipulation would occur after the voter has approved as “correct” the on-screen summaries of his or her intended selections. Team leader Johnson says that while such an attack could be mounted on Election Day, there would be “a high probability of being detected.” But he explained that the machines could also be tampered with during so-called voting machine “sleepovers” when e-voting systems are kept by poll workers at their houses, often days and weeks prior to the election or at other times when the systems are unguarded.
Johnston said the machine is “incredibly easy to tamper with” because all the crucial electronic components are accessible and can be easily modified. The Accuvote TS’ enclosure isn’t tamper resistant so hjackers can work on the machine without leaving visible signs, he added.
“All we had to do was find out what the machine was doing in terms of communication,” Johnston said. “We just had to understand the various components and how the data was being sent. We needed to understand what signal had to be sent to fool the machine into thinking the voter had touched the screen at a particular location.”
The experiment shows that e-voting systems are susceptible to more than just cyberattacks, which get the most attention but are harder to pull off as the perpetrators must have some knowledge of the machine’s software, hardware and firmware.
The so-called man-in-the-middle attacks don’t require knowledge of the voting machine’s proprietary software or hardware, Johnston said. “All you need to do is understand the communication between the different parts of the system. Then you just sit there and listen and do whatever mischief you want to.”.
Although it wouldn’t take a nation-state to pull of a successful attack, he said. Someone with limited computer science knowledge and electronic parts costing about $25 could do it, without needing to even solder anything and leaving no trace behind, according to the researchers.
E-voting systems have been plagued by criticism about security issues, so much so that elections officials in various states have abandoned touch-screen systems over security and fraud concerns.
Dominion Voting Systems, which now owns Diebold and Sequoia, did not respond to a phone call and e-mail seeking comment from CNET this afternoon. E-voting system vendors in general have argued that security problems identified are either overly theoretical or have been fixed with hardware and software updates.
Previous demonstrations of e-voting hacks involved cyber attacks where knowledge of the operating system and hardware were required, according to Johnston. However, that was not the case in these demonstrations, he said.
“It would be pretty easy to pull off,” Johnston said. “The bigger concern is that this attack is so straightforward. It suggests that there hasn’t been much thinking about security in these voting systems.”
While it would be relatively easy to make this type of attack more difficult to do by making modifications to the voting machine, stopping the attack cold would require more effort and a “careful examination of the security protocols used,” he said.
* Without a doubt, the “Smart Grid” bill was one of the most controversial pieces of legislation passed by the General Assembly this past spring. Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of the legislation has been lauded far and wide. But this issue isn’t as cut and dried as it too often looks. As I’ve already told you more than once, I’ve been a proponent of a smart grid for several years. Modernizing our infrastructure gives us a leg up on the competition, both regionally and internationally.
Yesterday, a group of business leaders held a press conference to discuss the benefits of the technology, which is often lost in the shuffle…
At a news conference held at S&C Electric Co. in Chicago, which makes smart-grid technology, John Estey, the company’s president and CEO, demonstrated how “self-healing” electrical lines promised by a smart grid would work in the case of an outage.
Today, he said, the power goes out, residents call ComEd and the company rushes trucks out to find, isolate and fix the problem, a process than can take hours or days.
With a smart grid, he said, the problem can be resolved in seconds. The system automatically isolates the outages and figures out a way to run power from substations that are still working to homes with outages, while ComEd runs trucks to fix the problem. The result, he said, is that outages don’t become widespread.
“It’s not bleeding-edge technology,” he said. “This stuff really works.”
We have a semi-smart grid in Springfield. My power went out Sunday morning. I called CWLP and was informed that the utility already knew my power was out and that a fix was underway. But a real Smart Grid might’ve meant that my power would’ve remained on the whole time.
* One of the business owners who spoke at yesterday’s press conference said his company was being wooed by Michigan to relocate out of Illinois. Michigan is, indeed, ramping up its Smart Grid technology…
On Monday, utility Consumers Energy announced it will work with SmartSynch to roll out cellular-based smart meters for 1.8 million customers in Michigan. Consumers Energy says that it will start deploying the network in August 2012 and will continue until 2019.
SmartSynch says Consumers Energy is the largest utility to embrace cellular for smart meters. Earlier this year Duke Energy also indicated it would put a large emphasis on cellular networks for its smart grid roll-out, too.
According to a Vancouver Sun news report, local politicians have expressed a repeated theme that their ratepayers have concerns about potential health impacts from the radio frequency (RF) emitting devices.
* But almost totally missed by most reporters who write about this proposal is that the Sierra Club is also a major supporter. Jack Darin, the group’s executive director, wrote this not long ago..
This Spring, the General Assembly passed the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act. The core of the legislation, Senate Bill 1652, aims to build a smarter, stronger grid for the future. Building up the grid is great, but just as important is breaking down the barriers to clean, renewable energy that makes service more reliable and the air cleaner. SB 1652 does just that by allowing large rooftop owners to benefit by installing solar and windpower on their roofs.
f these big box stores, office parks, warehouses, parking garages, and other large rooftop owners install clean energy on the roof, they would get the same incentive homeowners currently have – on days when they make more electricity than they use, putting the extra back on the grid, they get a credit for that power against their electric bill. In addition, utilities would be required to buy some of the power they sell to us from small renewable systems like these. The combined effect of these two incentives will be turning empty roofs into job sites, with electricians, equipment operators, carpenters, laborers, and others installing pollution-free power systems.
The bill makes another fundamental reform that will reduce the cost of power by harnessing market forces to spur new energy efficiency businesses. SB 1652 will change the way the Illinois Power Agency (IPA) and our utilities buy our power. In addition to buying nuclear, coal, solar, and wind power, the they will now also buy power from entities that reduce energy use if it is cheaper than generation. This will provide a market- ‐based mechanism that will save consumers money and create jobs and economic growth.
Still, even Darin has reservations about the bill’s lack of consumer protections…
With added protection for consumers to go along with needed grid upgrades and new energy technologies, the forecast can look a whole lot better in the years ahead.
There are real problems with this bill. That’s to be expected, since ComEd basically wrote it. The General Assembly really dropped the ball on that one.
* The Pioneer Press published a story recently about how one man is using his smart meter to save big bucks…
Since buying a smart meter in July 2010, Russell has combined this information with the price-per-kilowatt data he finds on ComEd’s website to produce his savings. ComEd’s electricity rates change by the hour (a formula guided by how much power it has to generate during the day versus how much leftover juice it has sitting in its grid at night), and it reaches its lowest prices around 2 and 3 a.m.
Through site monitoring, Russell has found that, sometimes, in the middle of the night, ComEd has so much energy to spare that it gives it away for free. Other times, its rate goes “negative,” and ComEd actually pays customers to take unwanted electricity off its hands.
“They say ‘Use it, please, please, please,’” he explained.
*** UPDATE *** Speaking of Luddites, this incredibly paranoid YouTube video has over 700,000 views…
[Hat tip to a commenter.]
* Related…
* VIDEO: Imagine an electric grid that tells the power company when it is down without you having to call in the problem! John Estey, CEO of President of S&C Electric Company demonstrates how an electric smart grid works as Illinois business leaders gather to voice their support for the Illinois Infrastructure Modernization Act.
* The Statehouse press room is no more. The room is being eliminated to make way for a new stairwell so the capitol building can be brought up to modern fire codes. For the next year or so, the media will be stationed at the Stratton Building. Supposedly, we’ll be back at the Statehouse when the construction ends, but some have their doubts.
I never really got too attached to the press room because I work out of my house when the Legislature isn’t in session. And when the GA is in session, I’m usually out and about around the capitol complex. But, I will miss that ratty, old place. I had a pretty sweet office, too. It used to belong to United Press International, back when they were a big deal in Illinois. The UPI staff dwindled down to one, so I moved in with Greg Tejeda. UPI eventually closed up shop and the Daily Herald moved out of its tiny closet-sized space and in with me. I’ll share space with a Downstate TV station and BlueRoomStream.com at the new digs across the way.
Anyway, Chris Wills at the AP has posted a few pics of the press room’s finale. Check ‘em out.
* I’ve been listening to a lot of Joe Walsh tunes in my spare time this week, forobviousreasons. And I don’t think there’s a greater beginning to any rock song than this one…
* Springfield state Senate Democratic candidate Bill Clutter has already come up with three different ideas for a constitutional amendment. He eventually discovered that all three wouldn’t pass muster, so he dumped them. Here is part of Clutter’s fourth draft…
One Senator and two Representatives shall be elected from each Legislative District for a term of two years. […]
Each political party shall nominate in a primary election no more than 2 legislative candidates selected by electors of the same political party. Cumulative voting will determine the election of Senator as the person who receives the most votes in the General Election, with the 2 Representatives being determined by the 2nd and 3rd place finishers. General electors may vote for no more than three candidates.
That’s quite the Rube Goldberg contraption, Billy. How are you gonna explain that process to people? And how does it make things better? His explanation…
This petition restores the system of cumulative voting that made Illinois government unique; […]
Cumulative voting existed in Illinois since 1870, but was repealed with the 1980 cutback amendment which reduced the number of legislators by a third. The Chicago Tribune in 1995 ran an editorial calling for the return of cumulative voting stating, “Many partisans and political independents have looked back wistfully at the era of cumulative voting. They acknowledge that it has produced some of the best and the brightest in Illinois politics”.
Sorry, but this concept is far different from the way things were done before. I’d like to go back to cumulative voting as well. But this is just too far out for me.
* The I-Team ran a report last night about out-of-state materials being used in the work on the Illinois Statehouse…
But the I-Team has found that some of the sole-source suppliers working on the Illinois Capitol are not even from Illinois.
Yes, because failing to use the lowest bidder wouldn’t prompt just the exact opposite story. I can see the headline now: “Bids denied, Statehouse costs higher than they should be.”
Look, I’d like all the contractors, workers and materials on this project to be from Illinois. Same goes for our road and bridge projects. But there are laws against that sort of thing, and for good reason.
* Anybody can sue anybody for anything in this world, but thankfully justice is usually served…
A lawsuit against the blog news source Illinois Review was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Matthew F. Kennelly for a blog post that the Illinois Review wrote over two years ago. Illinois Review is represented by the Thomas More Society in Chicago.
The Illinois Review’s blog post included documents showing that former Illinois State Rep. Paul Froehlich sought campaign contributions from individuals who won property tax relief with his assistance. After that story ran, the Cook County Board of Review reversed the tax breaks, and Satkar sued Illinois Review for defamation.
In the decision, Judge Kennelly said that Satkar “failed to show that the [Illinois Citizen Participation Act] is unconstitutional or inapplicable to Satkar’s claims against the Illinois Review …. Satkar brought these claims in response to these defendants’ acts in furtherance of their right of free speech ….”
We are pleased that the Court recognized that Illinois Review, by bringing to light a story of great public interest, did nothing wrong and that this lawsuit was meritless and frivolous,” said Peter Breen, Executive Director & Legal Counsel of the Thomas More Society, who is representing the Illinois Review.
Democrats in the 10th congressional district are dubious of a recent award given to U.S. Rep. Bob Dold (R-10) by environmentalists. Earlier this week, Dold was named as one of “America’s Great Outdoors Congressional Champions” by a coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society.
“I am honored to receive this award,” said Dold. “As a Scout master, protecting the environment has always been a priority of mine. Our national treasures, like the Great Lakes, are threatened by pollution and lack of conservation efforts. It is important for Congress to be stewards of the environment and protect our resources for generations to come.”
But some of Dold constituents don’t find him to be that green. The Wheeling Township Democratic Organization finds Dold’s record in Washington to be “far less than stellar when it comes to protecting Americans and our environment from pollution and toxic waste,” according to a press release.
…Adding… Yes, Congressman Walsh, we’re protecting President Obama because he’s black. Right. Go with that…
“This guy pushed every one of the media’s buttons,” Walsh said. “He was liberal, he was different, he was new, he was black. Oh my God, it was the potpourri of everything. They are so vested in our first black president not being a failure that it’s going to be amazing to watch the lengths they go to protect him. [The media], I believe, will spout this racist line if some of their colleagues up here aren’t doing it aggressively enough. There is going to be a real desperation.”
*** UPDATE *** This has to rank right up there with among the very worst of very bad ideas…
A Cook County Forest Preserve “resident watchman” whose duties include stopping people from growing or smoking pot in the woods has been arrested — accused of growing pot in the woods.
The carefully cultivated cannabis was found growing near the forest preserve-owned house where Cynthia Wojtanowski, 45, lives at Tampier South Woods forest preserve at 135th and Wolf Road in southwest suburban Orland Park.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Other stuff that happened today…
* Blagojevich lawyer “quite certain” ex-gov’s sentencing will be delayed: Zagel did not rule on the government’s request to bar the defense from poking into the racy past of top witness Stuart Levine. Webb said he needed time to respond to a couple of petitions put forth by the government.
* Bachmann cancels Illinois rally: Indications are that one part of the Bachmann campaign was unaware that the other part had schueduled the candidate to be in Illinois on Monday.
* David Axelrod held a fundraiser yesterday for 8th Congressional District Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth and had this to say about her primary opponent Raja Krishnamoorthi…
“I like Raja a lot — he’s a friend of mine,” Axelrod said. “I have told him I don’t think it’s the right decision for him. I think he’s made a mistake by getting into this race but sometimes you have to make your mistakes and learn from your mistakes. Unfortunately it’s going to be an expensive lesson … I think a lot of resources are going to be squandered unnecessarily.”
* The Krishnamoorthi campaign’s response…
Raja was the first candidate in this race, raised over $400,000 last quarter, and worked hard to get the backing of numerous local leaders. Despite recent efforts from the Duckworth campaign, our local backing has not eroded, and our list of supporters has grown. Supporters like Toni Preckwinkle and Danny Davis have seen the dynamics of this race and they doubled-down on their support by fundraising for Raja.
It is a mistake for party elders in DC to try to impose their will upon the voters of the 8th district. This race will be decided by the voters of the 8th district who want real solutions and ideas for job creation and middle-class prosperity. Raja got in this race to give the voters of his district that option, and that fact has not changed. Raja is the only candidate in this race with real economic experience and thorough ideas on how to produce jobs for the middle class and restore prosperity to American economy.
The Raja folks do have a point. Raja was in the race months before Duckworth, so how was jumping in first a “mistake”? And, as far as resources go, they’re getting a whole lot of contributions from South Asian folks who aren’t normally on everybody’s fundraising list. Krishnamoorthi is definitely the underdog here, but it’s a free country. And I’m not sure the high-end Duckworth backers are gonna look all that great if they fail to force Raja out of the race. I’m told they’re calling Krishnamoorthi’s list and attempting to convince contributors to bolt. We’ll see how far they get. So far, however, it ain’t working.
All the speakers speculated that Walsh abandoned the district rather than face Duckworth.
“Joe is so tired of his own act that when he heard Tammy was going to run in the 8th, as you saw just yesterday — obviously I worked up this speech a week ago — Joe cut out on us,” Brandt said. “Joe, where did you go? Joe went someplace else because he knows he can’t beat Tammy.”
Axelrod echoed that.
“Joe Walsh has spent the last year and a half essentially auditioning for right-wing talk radio instead of meeting his responsibilities for the people … of his district,” Axelrod said. “I think part of the reason he left is he recognized who Tammy Duckworth is. She is an authentic American hero.”
But the truth is more of Walsh’s current district — including his McHenry home — was thrown into the new 14th rather than into the new 8th, which is designed for a Democrat to win, so Walsh may well have opted for the 14th whether or not Duckworth ran.
Walsh wasn’t ever gonna run in the 8th. The 14th is far more Republican and way more to his liking. Running in the 8th meant he’d have to either move to the center or perish. Running in the 14th means he can stay right where he is, geographically and politically.
* Krishnamoorthi’s spokesman, by the way, is Mike Murray. Many of you will remember Mike as a former Capitol Fax intern. I’ve found it a bit difficult, but still interesting dealing with Mike in his new job. Mike understands I won’t show any favoritism here, but I thought you should know about this going forward.
My first intern, Paul Richardson, just graduated from law school and founded LawBlogWriters.com. It’s a pretty cool business idea. My second intern, Kevin Fanning, is in law school and works for Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski. Barton Lorimor, who was my intern last year, is now at the comptroller’s office.
…Adding… I lost track recently of my other intern from last year, Dan Weber. I sent him an e-mail earlier today and he just replied. Dan is teaching English in Mexico. He said he’s having a lot of fun.
* Meanwhile, Duckworth is training for a marathon. Check out the video…
