Tempest Security; Voting-Machine Makers To Fight Security Criticism

[Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All:

I little about the anonymity of your vote.  The sum and substance: I doubt
that it is with a DRE.

More, below.



On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 10:59:29 -0700, you wrote:

[snip]

>I was saying that hacking the console, meaning being able to enter the code
>from a DRE, is a pretty difficult thing to do. It would take special
>equipment and lots of time.

[snip]

>
>There are computer professionals that are paid to hack to see if things can
>be broken into. Then their methods of exploits are used to make things more
>secure. Crackers have no such high ideals. They will break in to where the
>source code is stored and change it.

OK, it's time for paranoia.

For several years during the Cold War I work on a piece of hardware/software
that I developed and marketed: CyLencer. It was a PC-based real-time voice
scrambler for use over the public switched phone network.

The project never went anywhere (the company that I was a 10% owner of was
badly mismanaged and went bankrupt).  Nonetheless I learned a lot about
encryption and secure computer systems.

One of the reasons that my product did not sell (to the government and large
corporations) was because it was not "Tempest Secure".  My product was not
Tempest Secure and it tanked.



Be that as it may, I quote from
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci522583,00.html

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
... Today, cathode ray tube (CRT) and to a lesser extent liquid crystal
display (LCD) monitors, microchips, and composite devices such as printers
and PCs all emit EMR [electromagnetic radiation] into space or into some
conductive medium (such as power lines, communications wires, or even water
piping). ...

... With the correct equipment and techniques, it is possible to reconstruct
all or a substantial portion of that data. Some equipment is far more
susceptible than others. For example, some US Robotics data/fax modems
generate incredibly strong EMR when active, which can be read even by
comparatively crude equipment ...

The range in which an eavesdropper can monitor emanations varies
tremendously according to conditions. In most cases, the emanations can be
picked up with proper equipment from a distance of around 200-300 meters.
However, in some cases where a signal has been captured by a conductive
medium (such as a power line), monitoring can occur over a distance of many
kilometers. 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Have you ever wondered why your pin number is not displayed on an ATM?  Part
of is, of course, that a person with binoculars could see what you punched
in.  But the more sophisticated reason is that someone with fairly crude
electronic equipment could see what it is that you are punching into the
machine if your pin number is displayed.

Of course, the raison d'être for DRE is to display what it is that you
punched in.



Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit to you that it would not be hard to equip a
few vans with relatively unsophisticated equipment and learn who voted which
way.  A few appropriately placed thugs who tell people "We know how you
voted.  You voted for X and you voted for Y and Z.  You better tell your
friends not to vote that way or there may be a few unfortunate accidents."

Is such a thing farfetched?  I don't think so but you be the judge.

There is a reason we have a secret ballot.  I am simply raising the
previously unmentioned possibility that DREs may not provide the kind of
anonymity that people expect.



[snip]

>
>Paul Tiger