I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Yeah, I blogged about this briefly this AM (blogwhore). Thing that bothers me is the issue is getting coverage, and state governments are worried about it (as the RABA study illustrated), but it's not really on the radar for most people because it's being discussed in the freaking Technology section of most papers...
finally.. finally.. finally... The MSM (main stream media) is starting to awaken from their slumber on this issue.
People are beginning to find out for themselves what Bev Harris has been saying all along.
I can't understand why the state has to pay for these machines. If the equipment does not meet specifications, if it is not as agreed to, why should the states pay?
the only - and I mean only - way these machines will ever be secure, is if the code is open-source.
Cathy Cox, the Secretary of State of Georgia, bought a whole lot of those bad boys and rolled 'em out for the 2002 elections. During those elections, Viet Nam vet and Purple Heart recipient Max Cleland lost (even though he was ahead in the polls through to election day). Democratic Governor Barnes lost to Good ol' Boy Perdue, even though Georgia hadn't had a non Democratic Governor in a very long time. Barnes too was leading the polls.
Cathy Cox, a "Democrat" is also the one looking to have the word "evolution" removed from public school curricula.
Listen, if a machine is so easy to hack into that I think I could do it, well that's mega-fucked up.
This needs way more publicity than just a local article or two.
I'm confused... why would Maryland get all these new Diebold machines and then get rid of the older ones, even though they felt the need to test the new machines.
I'm curious to know - is an absentee ballot a safer way to go?
conspiracy theory
oops, wrong Cathy Cox. It is a school superintendent Kathy Cox, not the Secretary of State, that wants to remove the word "evolution" from Georgia's curricula.
I agree with Paul Krugman's column today: what has gone wrong with America? How can something as STUPID as these voting machines with NO paper audit trail get past the laughed-at stage? Maryland HAS to use them now because they got rid of their optical scanners! AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!
the only - and I mean only - way these machines will ever be secure, is if the code is open-source. -- Renato
Agreed, but sadly the ignorance about open source is (and can I blame Microsoft here?) that it makes things more insecure.
Until people become more educated about this, I think the next best option is a paper trail, which the companies who make the machines seem to be strangely disinterested in implementing.
Conspiracy theory? Or eeeeeeevil!?
Here's the one thing to remember; we can never predict every potential problem. We can have people attempt to hack the system, yes, but we can't predict every circumstance that might happen to these kinds of machines during their production and use. If someone altered the program at a machine, how would people tell until its too late, and even then how would they notice? For all we know we might inaugurate a candidate, then someone looks at voting machines and finds a virus. What would we do then? Really. After a candidate was inaugurated, could we strip them of the office? It should be a no-brainer that this is a situation that we should be desperate to avoid.
THis is an impossibly risky situation, and more and more data keeps proving that. There has to be paper trails on every vote now. The money needs invested now, by Congress. And we need to make sure we're using companies we can trust. Right now, with this company, we just don't know. And that's scary.
Visit my web page, please
OT, but the idiocy just doesn't stop.
And if you haven't been to the mother of all this, here's the link:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Today on Holden's Obsession with the Gaggle we learn that the Chimp in Chief was told that his lovely medicare bill would cost 1/3 more than advertised two weeks ago!
Q Scott, to follow on that, are you telling us, on the day the President signed it and presented it to the American people, made it law, he either thought it was going to cost $400 billion over 10 years, or he didn't know how much it was going to cost and he didn't care?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, the President -- in fact, you just heard from the President -- we've been going through our budget process; the budget will be released on Monday. The President was briefed just, I believe it was two weeks ago today when he was briefed on this aspect of the budget and was informed about the new -- or I guess this was the first estimate -- that we put forward the estimate that the HHS actuaries came up with in that budget process. And -- I'm sorry, go ahead, Keith.
Then, amazingly enough, someone asked a follow-up question! So surprising was this that the press corps broke into hales of laughter.
Q Scott, two weeks ago today, when the President was given this number, he was also preparing for his State of the Union address. Why did the President not take advantage of that opportunity to level with the people, say, Congress has bought a pig in a poke, here's what it's really going to cost? (Laughter.)
http://tinyurl.com/2km7h
No, but of course Skull & Bones is a conspiracy theory.
Everyone knows that!
It's a social club!
It's just a frat!
Duh.
As today's Obsession continues, the press notices a pattern:
Q This President, does he make decisions on major issues, like Medicare and the war in Iraq, without having accurate information, both on the cost of Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, or the cost of Medicare?
http://tinyurl.com/2km7h
Does anybody have a database (Excel, Access, etc.) of
media contacts (name, address) I could get for use in
a mail merge document? I want to send one letter per
day to a major or local media outlet regarding the
above topic, and typing all this out every morning is
a pain in the neck. Any help or direction you could
give me would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Doug Hammond
Does anybody have a database (Excel, Access, etc.) of
media contacts (name, address) I could get for use in
a mail merge document? I want to send one letter per
day to a major or local media outlet regarding the
above topic, and typing all this out every morning is
a pain in the neck. Any help or direction you could
give me would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Doug Hammond
http://www.sunspot.net/news/loca...local-
headlines
Why the hell would anyone ever use these things?
Beuller? Beuller?
By the way, Cathy Cox, the Secretary of State of Georgia, who paid 54 million taxpayer dollars to Diebold for these non-voter verifiable machines, is planning on running for Governor of Georgia in 2006.
Is it just me or was Iowa depending on paperless machines for a large majority of the precincts? What about new hampshire? This fix in I'm afraid.....Demo candidates are being handpicked...
...said Paul Franceus, one of the consultants. "It's not like they did it wrong. It's like they didn't bother."
Looking at the design (I do systems work for what some would suggest is a living) I would say they did more than not bothering. If I wanted to build a system and make it as easy as possible to hack, it would look a lot like these Diebold boxen.
I simply cannot understand how so many otherwise intelligent people permiited the wool to be pulled over their eyes. 3 cheers for Bev Harris, a national hero.
Meanwhile, ever wondered who invests in these travesties? None other than T Rowe Price (they are also major investors in Choice Point Data)
why not send a courteous note asking why they think electing rigging is a sensible investment,
info@troweprice.com
put Attn: Brian W.H. Berghuis in the subject line, he is the fund manager
for even more fun, tell Mr. Berghuis about Diebold's insider trades
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=dbd
remember to be brieif, specific, polite and have fun!
Zeddex - Iowans voted by standing up and being counted (ie, a caucus). You are correct in that a human is a paperless machine. The "fix", whatever that is, may or may not be in, but it wasn't by computer hacking.
you know, if even one of the world's biggest corporations can't make their operating system secure enough to prevent its constant exploitation by hackers writing malicious virii...
...why the hell would Diebold be arrogant enough to think they can write secure, proprietary code that won't be exploited by hackers?
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." - Frank Zappa
From a software engineering point of view, electronic voting is a bad solution.
THe users only use the app a couple of times a year (at the very most). The application must be easy to use for all users (still large population that do not use computers, including most on the board ;
From a software engineering point of view, electronic voting is a bad solution.
THe users only use the app a couple of times a year (at the very most). The application must be easy to use for all users (still large population that do not use computers, including most on the board ;
"Aussies Do It Right: Open Source E-Voting
"
...I can't imagine what it must be like to be an American in the midst of this and watching what's going on," Quinn added. "Democracy is for the voters, not for the companies making the machines.... I would really like to think that when it finally seeps in to the collective American psyche that their sacred Democracy has been so blatantly abused, they will get mad...
According to Black Box Voting, that's not atypical. In some areas, the new machines were tested but not recommended, then purchased anyway. I didn't realize that "bringing democracy" to Iraq meant trading our system for theirs. 2004: Bush wins unanimously, with 100% voter turnout!
FYI, Iowa uses optical ballots in elections (aside from the caucuses, which are counted by raised hands). Iowa has one of the best ballot systems, largely due to the involvement of Professor Doug Jones on the Board of Elections. Jones is one of the leading critics of Diebold, has testified before Senate committees to criticize evoting, and due to his efforts, Iowa was one of the first states to decertify punch card ballots.
Anyone who is interested in how a proper election (paper or electronic) is conducted should read Jones' tutorials on Voting and Elections, they are very informative.
This technical stuff is boring. Oh my God, can you believe that Kerry person uses Botox?
CNN headline:
Kerry and Botox
Kerry Denies Charges
I didn't know that it was illegal and something you could be charged with, but I know its credible because I heard the same people who charged him say that he wasn't pretty. First he has the gall to get old and ugly, then he tries to cover it up. He's no better than that Lincoln fellow who hid behind a beard.
MOebius - Fair enough. I was under the impression that people were still voting on machines at each precinct. If I am wrong, then I certainly stand correct and happy in that I leanred something new today!
I'm just counting on the fact most hackers are to the left of Howard Dean. Are you ready for the Kucinich presidency?
THe users only use the app a couple of times a year (at the very most). The application must be easy to use for all users (still large population that do not use computers, including most on the board ;
I don't find this argument convincing. General purpose computers might be difficult to use for the average American, but interfaces for specific tasks aren't too difficult to design correctly, especially if you do it in conjunction with usability studies. I don't think an e-voting system would be any harder to use than ordinary ballots--we only use those paper voting interfaces a couple times a year, afterall. The notorious butterfly ballots, for example, were poorly implemented from a human factor design POV.
All right then. Who here knows how to hack? Let the games begin.
If I am ever confronted by an e-voting machine in a ballot, I will break it.
I suggest you do the same.
Problem solved.
There is NO reason to need these things. Paper works fine.
I'm a programmer, and let me tell you, you should not trust programmers.
I refreshed the page and saw that Atrios put up the same CNN headline as me :D. I think my quote is more accurate, though.
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but they DON'T have to use these during the primary. A primary election is one where you're only voting for one office, and so they could have paper ballots marked with an 'x', dropped in a clear plastic box-- like they do in most modern western democracies.
Diebold can bother making ATMs and cash registers sufficiently secure and with dual paper trails.
But they "didn't bother" with such details on the voting machines.
Why?
The bastids are stealing the country right from under our stunned and amazed faces.
Diebold can bother making ATMs and cash registers sufficiently secure and with dual paper trails.
Nope, Diebold ATMs aren't sufficiently secure, either...
I just received my copy of Bev Harris' book "Black Box Voting" finally. I'm sending copies to as many movers and shakers as I can afford.
Using Atrios' Amazon link ( http://tinyurl.com/2s8bj
) I find that Amazon doesn't stock it. How come?
You can buy it directly from the publisher:
www.plan9.org
disclaimer: I'm just a fan of Bev Harris' yeoman efforts. Go Bev!
They had a story on ATC yesterday about this. The "reporter' barely scratched the surface, and the final wrap up mostly concerned how security tape could keep the bad guys from breaking into the individual machines in polling places. Nothing about the real problem: no verifiable trail, and software a good hacker can corrupt.
Another rethuglican solution: pay more for a system which works worse. Why not use optical scanned paper ballots? You only need one scanner per polling place, and you have a complete paper backup. At least here in notably corrupt one party state Rhode Island, they went with optical scanners.
Using a low-tech solution, such as tape that reveals tampering, could keep people like McLarnon at bay, at least as a temporary fix, the consultants said.
Did you get this? And then what? What do you do if you detect a machine has been tampered with? Toss out all the results? Does that mean that a Democrat in a Republican-leaning precinct (or vice versa) can effectively toss out thousands of votes by slicing the tape with a small knife?
Maybe some of the elite hackers who can forge the Name: field on Haloscan can help us out on this one..
what i don't get is..
wouldn't a hacker been more inclined to be a democrat
why should we be warning everyone about this problem ..?
instead we should be over at slashdot running a contest to see who can hack Kerry 's victory in Georgia in 2004 election
Say...wasn't it the president of Diebold who told a meeting of Ohio Republicans his number-one priority was getting Bush re-elected come 2004?
Holy leapin' shit...
Most of the hackers I know - and I know a couple - are socially liberal but basically politically unconcerned. In other words, they could give a shit. Most of 'em are jackasses, too. Again, though, these are the ones I know, but I'd venture to guess your average hacker is less inclined to hack for a cause than to hack just for shits and giggles.
Hm, whichever way the hackers might be inclined to swing an election, it's the principle of the thing. Renato's got a good point - open source will put the result of the software above reproach. Hopefully.
I think this was a well-attended thread on Slashdot some time ago: try Googling it.
"Conspiracy theory" is just a magic phrase for stopping critical thought processes. It appeals to the intellectual laziness of those who find it takes less effort to automatically believe official pronouncements and conventional wisdom, without closer examination.
It also rests on the unstated weasel assumption that conspiracies *don't* take place. The clear implication: that anyone who believes the acts of politicians might reflect motives less noble than those stated, that politicians might lie us into war, or that government serves the rich and powerful while appealing to sweetness and light, is the moral equivalent of someone who believes the world is run by the Bavarian Illuminati.
"conspiracy theory"
There. Chew on it.
I remain personally hopeful that legislatures will be appalled at the security problems and won't believe Diebold when they say that the flaws are fixed when follow-up reports indicate that they're not. Maybe that makes me a wild-eyed optimist, but there does seem to be genuine concern about it at least some of the states it's being attempted in.
all you need is one hacker to break into the system in Maryland and put in 1,000,000 votes for Sharpton or something. If that happens, believe me, the media would be all over the story. you just need one spark to get this thing rolling.
all you need is one hacker to break into the system in Maryland and put in 1,000,000 votes for Sharpton or something. If that happens, believe me, the media would be all over the story. you just need one spark to get this thing rolling.
So, if there's no such thing as a "Conspiracy" then 9/11 was an accident right? I mean because Al Quada or the Saudi's or whoever could never have been involved in a conspiracy since there's no such thing. I guess they ought to release all the people from prison who've been convicted on conspiracy related charges too.
Thanks Kevin for being sane and pointing out what I've been saying for years. Conspiracies ARE REAL and they happen every day, otherwise we wouldn't have a law against say, Conspiracy to commit Murder? Conspiracy to defraud? I'm sure there are others. We all KNOW for a FACT that there was a conspiracy involved in 9/11, we just don't know everything that was connected to it. Getting a group of people together to commit an act of mass murder is pretty much the definition of conspiracy isn't it?
Sure some are just fun indulgences, and some are wacked out, but that doesn't mean there is NO Truth to something because it's been branded a conspiracy.
In the Diebold machine case, there are obviously plenty of facts to go on which show that it's a completely unreliable system on several levels. That's not conspiracy, that's FACT. The conspiracy comes in when you start to wonder why these facts are there and think about what the CEO of Diebold said about getting Shrub re-selected.
sharky's got the right idea.
It is a school superintendent Kathy Cox, not the Secretary of State, that wants to
remove the word "evolution" from Georgia's curricula.
Easy mistake to make... one's the Cox-shucker and the other's the Cox-slacker.
Saw this in the blackboxvoting.org forums.
http://www.sighost.us/members/
pe...hackthevote.gif
Shut up. Electronic voting works just fine. It is cost-efficient and fair and balanced. You who cast doubts and aspersions on our government's ability to run elections during wartime are aiding and abetting the enemy. Just like liberals to make a big deal over nothing.
It's "fair and balanced"?
Hahahahahhahahahah. Right. That's what I thought.
Diebold has been making paper receipt-producing ATMs since 1966.
Why would they program the paper receipt out of their voting machines, after 38 years of business practice?
Because it's more important to demonstrate a $20 withdrawl than it is to confirm a presidential selection, I'd wager.
All the concern about counting votes comes from those on the left not the right.
I guess now we really know who believes in democracy and who doesn't.
Ergo, we also know who the true patriots are, don't we. Regardless of all the cheap talk and flag waving.
I've said it a dozen times or more and I'll say it again.
The *ONLY* use for these machines is to serve as a way of properly relaying a voter's vote onto a ballot.
1. A system can have a person make their selections from a keypad and be verified on the screen.
2. The machine prints out a ballot that the voter takes in hand and compares it again to the recorded votes on the screen.
3. The ballot is not valid until it's jammed into the ballot box, so if the voter thinks there was an error, he or she can have a polling place attendent assist them in properly disposing of the ballot, through a shredder, and then reset the machine to begin the process again.
4. Each revote, and shredded ballot procedure undertaken can be recorded for security purposes as each ballot has a unique number. When the ballot is shredded, the tag with the number is kept for recording sake.
5. Once the voter is sure that the ballot they have is in fact correct as they voted, it is then jammed into the ballot box.
This way the vote is done using ballots, but there are no risks of dimples and hanging chads. The ballot can be printed to be easily readable by optical scanners or vote tally personel.
It's that simple. There should not be an issue here. Do not use the machines to count votes.
I have no intention of voting any other way.
MYOB'
.
Slashdot also had links to articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times about the problems uncovered in the RABA review.
You want a voting machine? I've got your voting machine right here, buddy!
I'm a systems engineer who's worked on military IT systems acquisition. This whole project was complete amateur hour. The whole requirements process looks like it was done by people with no experience in acquisition beside buying PCs, and Diebold did the cheapest half-assed job it could. Hey, if you have no real requirements, anything will work.
If I had submitted a system design document for a system like Diebold built, our project would have been shut down and defunded. If we had somehow managed to build a system like that, we would have been shut down by the security agencies in about five minutes and the project manager would have been fired.
I have no idea whether the security holes were intentional, since these are the problems you usually run into when you use bottom-of-the-barrel inexperienced developers. But it sure opens the door for any idiot script kiddie to completely screw the election.
Without meaning to sound like too much of a tin-foil hat type, the article quotes Arbaugh, part of the RABA team, saying "There's no security that's going to be 100 percent effective. But the level of effort [needed to get into the system] was pretty low," and "A high school kid could do this. Right now, the bar is maybe 8th grade. You want to raise the bar to a well-funded adversary."
Okay, maybe you'd want to raise the bar a little more. Considering what's at stake, it isn't that hard to imagine well-funded adversaries seeking to illegally alter election results.
did anybody else see where in the NH primary where they took slips of paper and stuck it in this box with a hole in it? isn't that cool? that was likle CHEEP and fool proof.
verifyverify verify
"You just need to raise the level of effort needed to exploit it so it's not feasible to do," said fellow consultant John Ormonde.
Well, if you're the RNC, what would be the dollar limit to "feasibility"? Given what's at stake here?
Or, to be perfectly honest, the DNC as well. I mean, power is power. Think Chicago, Mayor Daly....
"instead we should be over at slashdot running a contest to see who can hack Kerry 's victory in Georgia in 2004 election
smartone"
not funny
Holden, in that WH transcript you posted the link to ... did you notice that Scott starts if with this:
"Quickly, the President, because the President will be meeting with the NATO Secretary General, de Hoop Scheffer --
Q What's his name? (Laughter.)
MR. McCLELLAN: I just said it. Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer. Do you want to jump in? Is your Dutch better than mine? (Laughter.) His Texan isn't, though.
Anyway, the President is pleased to welcome the Secretary General here to the White House and looks forward to having a good discussion with him on continuing to move forward on the transformation of NATO to meet the 21st century threats.
And with that, I'm ready for your questions. "
Am I to take it then that none of the White House Press Corps (or at least a sizeable-enough chunk of them) had no idea who the Sec Gen of NATO is? We're involved in a war with these folks as our allies, and the reporters right at the top of the food chain don't know this guy.
I like this from his bio on the NATO site:
"He is married to Jeannine de Hoop Scheffer-van Oorschot, who teaches French and holds positions in various volunteer groups. They have two daughters. In his free time, he is a dedicated runner and plays tennis and squash. He enjoys singing and is fond of Dutch, French and English literature, as well as French films."
Does that sound like the bio of a guy who'd Bushco would even listen to? My head spins.
Does that sound like the bio of a guy who'd Bushco would even listen to? My head spins.
No Travis, he'd just get mad cause de Hoop Scheffer would always be using big words and stuff.
Diebold has been making paper receipt-producing ATMs since 1966.
Verry interresting. Are Diebold's ATMs as easy to hack as the voting touchscreens?
holy shit, people are fired where i work for a lot less than this for lack of or spotty regression testing.
and we're just selling $19.99 widgets online, not the fabric of our democracy.
hillary or gore should come out with a public endorsement of diebold, and then maybe the necessary eyebrows will finally be raised.
A) "instead we should be over at slashdot running a contest to see who can hack Kerry 's victory in Georgia in 2004 election
smartone"
B) not funny
No, not funny, and very very illegal, but if there was ever a situation where the higher moral obligation was to break the law, this is it. If Donald Duck wins Maryland's Democratic primary, there is an easy and amicable way to fix it--and the problem gets exposed. If Bush miraculously wins narrow, very plausible-sounding victories in a lot of machine-using blue states, we know from experience what will happen.
The bottom bottom line is this: someone will hack these machines, and all machines like them. That's game set and match for democracy. I say aid and abet anyone who tries to openly subvert this while there's still time.
What we really need to do is start a credible rumor that the Democrats are going to steal the presidential election by hacking these machines. They'd be gone in a heartbeat.
If Donald Duck wins Maryland's Democratic primary, there is an easy and amicable way to fix it--and the problem gets exposed.
Perhaps having Donald win the Republican primary would be better, in that it would make just as much noise, but it wouldn't actually cause any lasting damage, given that Dubya is running basically unopposed.
Congratulation.
Thank you for voting.
You have voted for KerryBush.
We have confirmed your vote for KerryBush.
Have a nice day. And thank you for participating in the last election. ever.
I see this as an opportunity....who are the smart people? Who are smart enough to hack the Diebold machines?
I know the answer - it is us.
Not to be a party-pooper, but as I understand it, in order to hack one of these machines, one needs physical access to it for the amount of time needed to do whatever one does to change the votes (which reads as a fairly quick process, but still).
Now, this has to basically happen in a room full of people, surrounded by people who are there to watch the machines and make sure nobody tampers with them. I don't think there is going to be that kind of access, because it's not like someone can sit at home and hack these things over the internet, because they're not hooked up to the internet.
It is still possible, but much less probable, that after the polls close, one of the elections officials at the precinct sends everyone out for coffee and while the room is empty, unlocks the cabinet (as I understand it, the cabinets are locked), and then changes the votes before everyone gets back with the coffee.
So, it's improbable that this will happen, however, I still think that there is enough evidence that even if that doesn't happen, flaws in the software are enough to cause this to be an invalid system of counting votes, even if there were no possibility of hacking.
And even if there were no flaws in the software, I would personally think that it is a worthwhile enough process that having a paper trail is essential.
So, I don't think that Slashdot hackers are going to be breaking into these things. Liberals aren't going to be breaking into these things. Either the software is already buggy enough to cause a random (or less than random) slant in the totals towards republican contestants (even if only in the presidential race), or there has to be a coordinated conspiracy of election officials who are tampering with the machines.
I don't think that Democrats are going to benefit from the insecurity of these machines, unless we start registering our candidates as Republicans.
Anyway, this whole debacle never should have happened, and while heads will roll, no heads will roll, because this is just another in a long string of corporate crimes that will go noticed, but not dealt with in the appropriate manner.
I think the biggest conspiracy is that inertia will keep these machines in business for quite some time, until they are all eventually removed and replaced with something better.
Perhaps the best bet is to take a baseball bat with you to every polling station in your home town and smash the things into little tiny pieces, one by one, until our democracy is restored.
It'll mean Bush will have to be president until we can get the UN in here to restore peace and hold new elections, but that's pretty much our only choice, as I see it.
Your IP #s have all been logged and my boys will be paying personal visits soon. You cannot stop me! Bwaaaahahahaha!
The Sun says: "There are many ways to fool with Diebold's machines, some of which could lead to an Election Day disaster. At the same time, some scenarios were far-fetched and too difficult to pull off undetected, team members acknowledged."
Or maybe we need a whole new definition of "far-fetched" given how much -- sorry, how *little* -- modern-day Americans are apparently willing to accept in a putative president.
Perhaps the best bet is to take a baseball bat with you to every polling station in your home town and smash the things into little tiny pieces, one by one, until our democracy is restored.
Touch-screens and screwdrivers are natural enemies...
Sorry, Ananna....it's easy enough to do it from home. Or the library. Or any computer.
http://www.raba.com/press/
TA_Rep...rt_AccuVote.pdf
The GEMS server lacks several critical security updates from Microsoft. As a result, the team successfully exploited a well-known vulnerability using a software product known as Canvas27. This vulnerability, described in a security advisory from Microsoft28 for which a patch was made available on July 16, 2003, allows a remote attacker to get complete control of the machine. Since this is the same weakness that the August 11, 2003 “Blaster” worm exploited, it means that if the GEMS server was exposed to an environment where “Blaster” was propagating, it might have been infected. By successfully directing Canvas at the GEMS modem interface, the team was able to remotely upload, download and execute files with full system administrator privileges. All that was required was a valid phone number for the GEMS server.
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