Diebold voting machine key copied from pic on Diebold website

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 9:39 AM on January 25, 2007.

Or, unlock the vote with a mini bar key.

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A security expert copied the key to Diebold voting machines from a picture on Diebold's website.

Boing Boing explains:

In another stunning blow to the security and integrity of Diebold's electronic voting machines, someone has made a copy of the key which opens ALL Diebold e-voting machines from a picture on the company's own website. The working keys were confirmed by Princeton scientists, the same people who discovered that a simple virus hack on the Diebold machines could steal an election. Absolutely incredible and another example of how Diebold's e-voting machines pose a great threat to the electoral process.

Almost every Diebold machine uses exactly the same lock and key. So one Diebold key unlocks every machine. Worse, this same cheap mass produced lock is found on office products all around the country. You can buy the exact model from office supply stores, or get it on the internet.

How would the bad guys know what model to look for? They don't have time for trial and error, they've got an election to steal.

Diebold sells these keys on its own website--but only to registered Diebold users. But until very recently, they showed pictures of the Lone Key to Democracy on their site. So, if you've got a drill vise and some similar-looking keys, you can make your very own.

Or, if that's too much work, you can probably unlock the machines with a mini-bar key.

It's almost as if Diebold doesn't want these machines to be secure.

[Freedom To Tinker, Boing Boing]

Tagged as: security, vote, diebold, evoting, key

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.

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I'll bet... [Report this comment] Posted by: reinhold on Jan 25, 2007 9:49 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I'll bet that you can't bust into a Diebold ATM this easily. Why is it that their ATMs have all these features that their voting machines don't? Unique keys, receipt-printing capabilities. It's obvious that in this country money's more important than votes. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Reinhart. Sickofsleaze [Report this comment] Posted by: ladybug1@carrollsweb.com on Jan 25, 2007 10:19 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] It's the money AND the power honey [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Even better news for terrrists... [Report this comment] Posted by: eddie torres on Jan 25, 2007 12:13 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] ...Diebold has finally "arrived" at DHS: Certification enables Diebold to deliver solutions for Homeland Security initiatives [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Owned, or Defective by Design? [Report this comment] Posted by: RoffleTheWaffle on Jan 25, 2007 10:09 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Normally I'd say they just got owned. It's pretty goddamn stupid of them to post pictures - which, in the case of keys, are no different than blueprints - of the 'one key to rule them all' online. Seriously though, how many more fuck-ups can this machine run into? Did they just not try, or were they just hoping they wouldn't get caught? This is election fraud - or better yet, criminal mischief - made easy now that everyone knows it's easy-mode to tamper with these things. I think having a certain grinning candidate by the name of Richard C. Mongler hailing from the fictitious Lemon Party win the Presidency thanks to these machines would send a pretty strong message to what appears to be a widely unaware public, though. Surely then they'd know then just how broken Diebold's 'black box' is, and get a good laugh out of it, too. Alas, I digress... Your votes don't count unless they're being counted, and as long as a single Diebold machine is operated, it represents a threat to what little is left of our democracy, whether it is deployed in a local election or the Presidential election. The existence of these machines is an affront to not only the electoral process - which is supposed to ensure that the will of the people is heard, not silenced beneath a mountain of fake ballots - but America itself, it's citizens, and the very concept of democracy and rule by the people. While I'll caution against anyone doing anything particularly drastic, I would hope everyone who visits this site has fully informed their city, county, and state officials of the defective nature of these voting machines and has requested that they be removed and promptly disposed of. (That is, to take action that doesn't involve a baseball bat and a large magnet.) Demand secure voting machines, and demand a paper trail. Don't let one defective product ruin representative democracy for the rest of us. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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