Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Important Book for any Democracy, September 9, 2006
Buy this book if you care about the future of voting.
Once every blue moon a technologist who can both do world class science and also communicate effectively with normal people about deeply technical issues is born. Avi Rubin is just that sort of person. His work crosses the chasm from "important to computer security types" to "important to every voter in a modern democracy".
Avi has been at the forefront in telling the truth about computer security for years. His work ranges widely from Internet privacy and anonymity all the way to breaking RFID security. One essential thread runs through his work---a deep, humanitarian understanding of how security issues impact every day life.
Even if you could not care less about computer security you will enjoy this story. Telling the truth about technology can be hazardous---especially when it comes to something as widespread as voting machines. Avi has made his share of enemies in the electronic voting world. They would rather focus on politics and earning money than on safeguarding democracy. If you wonder what it might be like to be in the line of fire of large corporations and powerful politicians, buy this book and learn first hand what Avi has faced so far.
The most interesting thing about this book is that it relates a complete story but represents only the very beginning of what promises to be a long debate over electronic voting and democracy. Educate yourself today on this important issue, and then spread the word.
Gary McGraw, Ph.D.
CTO, Cigital
Author of "Software Security" and "Exploiting Software"
Host of <a href="http://www.cigital.com/silverbullet">The Silver Bullet Security Podcast</a> (featuring an interview with Avi Rubin in episode one)
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An election official's view of Rubin's work, October 9, 2006
This is a supremely readable, very important book. Rubin's unaffected, engaging "gee whiz" attitude is the perfect antidote to the false pride of America's typical election officials and the obscurantism of the E-voting industry.
Rubin's cautionary history of the alarming deficiencies of current voting technology and the frank dishonesty (and less obvious manipulation of facts) of the E-voting industry is chilling.
America's leading computer scientists sound an alarm, but Rubin reports that know-it-all election officials refuse to listen. Why does this strange thinking persist and grow? Who benefits by the sloppy misapplication of amateurish technology to American voting?
I am the Clerk/Recorder of Yolo County, California, home of UC Davis and just over the river from the state capitol in Sacramento. I have had careers as a scientist & academic and as a lobbyist in Sacramento. I think I know how politics work. I appreciate the contribution of science to progress. I am not a Luddite. I knew two programming languages before I started grad school.
And I certainly do NOT know enough about computer design, architecture, security or user-interface to evaluate or warranty those qualities in any of the "certified" voting systems approved by the federal government or the incumbent California Secretary of State. After reading Rubin's book, I don't trust that anyone outside of academia is qualified or disinterested enough to address this problem.
Who profits when these voting systems are approved? Who stands to profit over time? Why are public officials complicit in this mess? Rubin does not address these questions, and it's probably just as well...
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IS YOUR VOTE AT RISK? THE E-VOTING MACHINE QUANDRY!, September 8, 2006
Five EDUCATIONAL Stars!! In this in-depth examination of 21st Century electronic voting machines and procedures in the U.S.A, author and award-winning investigator Dr. Aviel Rubin of Johns Hopkins University, an expert in computer science and e-voting machine operations and security, states we have a "fundamental right to fair, safe, and secure elections". Then he makes a strong case that as a nation we are in the midst of using risky voting procedures and e-voting machines that may or may not be accurately recording your vote and may not have the capability of doing a valid re-count. With these machines, he feels that if vote fraud occurs it is virtually unverifiable. In addition, the book is a primer on general e-voting machine matters.
In the early chapters, it almost has elements of a mystery novel: with foreign websites offering up proprietary codes, shocking CNN and the New York Times reports, Red Team hackers, lawsuits, private investigations, state investigations, reports and counter-reports, numerous conferences, angry opponents, and one e-voting machine manufacturing company standing tough in the trenches. But it is not a novel and the mystery ends when his team breaks the Diebold source code and discovers a lot of problems that could adversely affect elections everywhere in the US and around the world.
What are the voting problems? Consider the fact that Sarpy County Nebraska (using electronic touch screen machines but not identified as Diebold machines) had "As many as 10,000 extra voters" in the 2004 general election. Extravagant to say the least, but certainly representative of 30,000 voting machines problems around the country experienced in 2004. Dr Rubin does not assign any blame to any particular political party. And while his examination is specific to Diebold direct recording electronic (DRE) e-voting machines, he doesn't specifically exclude other e-voting production companies from having similar problemS.
Here's a shocker: the source code for the Diebold TS and TSx Accuvote machines, used in more than half the states in 2002, was actually found on and copied from Diebold servers and posted on a mysterious foreign website for download by anyone. Dr Rubin was part of an expert team that examined the Diebold source code in detail, wrote a 2003 report and had it's results undergo a form of "peer review" before it's results were initially published by the New York Times and broadcast on CNN. This book primarily delineates the results of that report and it's aftermath. Also included is a consideration of the Maryland-sponsored SAIC study whose results were subjected to differing interpretations. The independent groundbreaking role of investigator and idealogue Bev Harris, who was first to find the Diebold source code problems, is acknowledged.
The report highlights e-voting machine vulnerabilities (at the time of this investigation) which included: vulnerabilities of voter smart cards; the use of the "broken" cryptographic algorithm DES instead of the strongest algorithm AES; unencrypted fixed lineup of the candidates and propositions (if you change the order but not the votes, you change the results of the election), and questionable crypto key management, among others.
As Dr Rubin describes his various working activities during the period from 2002 to 2004, he introduces us to many studies, reviews, technical terms, conferences, types of machines and procedures. We follow him from study groups to reports to conferences to media appearances and eventually to a 2004 polling place where he acts as an official poll judge in the 2004 election, and we learn the issues and problems as we go. His conclusions about the 2004 general election may surprise you. The author was also on investigation groups that looked at the insecurities of military and civilian overseas voting programs and revealed big problems there with the VOI/SERVE programs. Then he addresses the realization in Washington DC and among many states that a particular type of e-voting system is the way to go to help prevent fraud with e-voter machine systems. (I'll treat this as a spoiler). Dr Rubin does believe a truly secure e-voting machine is possible if it has four traits (another spoiler). And the book addresses his terse relationship with Maryland voting official Linda Lamone over Maryland's purchase of Dibold e-voting terminals (definitely not a spoiler!). He identifies a number of states that are moving in the right direction or are already there in terms of having the right e-voting machine platform. He also addresses handicapped voting and the required machines.
Diebold has issued a statement that based on the SAIC study their voting station "provides an unprecedented level of election security". I do wish the actual "Rubin" and "SAIC" reports had been included as an Annex but I don't know how voluminous this book would have become in that case. Be aware, however, that this book is only one side of this very important issue, so educate yourself on all viewpoints. I plan to! Highly recommended. Five Revealing Stars!!!
(This review is based on an unabridged EBook Digital Download in Abode 7 Reader; Save a Tree, download your books.)
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