TxPolitics_CurrentEvents

Ohio To Conduct E-Voting Tests

The 17 October 2007 online InfoWorld carries a ComputerWorld story of the state of Ohio is sponsoring a review by SysTest Labs of Denver and experts from three universities aimed at finding and fixing potential problems with Ohio's e-voting hardware, software, and processes

"In a first for Ohio, and perhaps the nation, three computer security researchers from three major universities -- Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Santa Barbara -- are also conducting independent evaluations of the state's e-voting systems. Those reviews will be submitted along with the ones being done by SysTest Labs."

The final report is due to the Ohio Secretary of State on 14 DEC 2007.

Technorati Tags: E-voting, E-voting systems, E-voting Systems Testing, Ohio

Changes in Air Force ISR

The transformation of Air Force ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) was among the airpower topics highlighted during the Air Force Association's Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition in Washington on September 27.  The new Deputy Chief of Staff of the USAF ISR domain (Lt./Gen. Deptula) provided an overview of the changes and hoped for impacts of transforming the USAF A2 from two star to a three star staff level.  The realignment of the Air Intelligence Agency from the Air Combat Command to a direct report to the deputy chief of staff ISR is expected to have a significant impact on the Air Force-wide ISR enterprise.
From military.com

From one who has seen first participated in and then, from retirement, observed the meanderings of the USAF intelligence functions up and down the various levels and chains of command I wonder how long this one will survive the reigns of General Mosely & Lt./Gen Deputla.

Technorati Tags: USAF ISR, Air Intelligence Agency, Transformations

Litvinenko Affair - Sept 2007 Summary

1 - 9 Sept.

The Kommersant Moscow online daily for Sept 3 carries a "Special" that elaborates on the long dormant Scaramella branch of this twisted affair.  One, Evgeny Limarev, a Russian emigrant living in France, turned over to Kommersant, documents which he claims Litvinenko was trying to sell.  The article provides details of the "papers" provenance if not their content.  And for those who like to connect the dots, the article provides connections to players that have not bee fully explained before.  While the reliability of the story appears to be low it does provide background filler which may be useful in future potboilers (TV, Books, Movies) that are sure to emerge based on this long lived story.

10 - 17 Sept.

After a comparatively quiet ten days where Litvinenko continued to to live primarily as references in other major stories such as the increased activity of Russian TU-95 reconnaissance missions and Putin's appointment of a new Prime Minister.  However on the 17th the alerts began to hitting on an interesting story about U.K. Crown Prosecution Service's prime suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, running for the Russian parliament (Duma).  A prime example is this 17 September Luke Harding story in the on-line Guardian Unlimited.  The story's bottom line is that Mr. Lugovoi is almost certain to be elected and thereby gain further immunity from being a member of parliament.

18 - 24 Sept.

One of the more interesting side trips of the Litvinenko Affair has been the story of Julia Svetlichnaja's relationships with Litvinenko and her being identified as being an agent of the Russian authorities by the UK Sunday Times. Ms. Svetlichnaja took exception to this and won a settlement from the paper.  Her reports and the same story were also carried in full by the Norwegian Aftenposten.  The La Russophobe has a full run down on the Aftenposten position.   As I said it is an interesting side trip and will no doubt result in a story arc in the action TV series.

Technorati Tags: Litvinenko Affair. Summary Sept 07

Busch and the Generals - A Dustup?

Dustup: Noun: slang - A row, dispute

Thanks to Richard Wilson and his vacuum cleaner operation of collecting items of interest, here are two items from Foreign Affairs on what 20/20 hindsight provides us about the performance U.S. general officers during the run-up to Iraq and the current state that we now find ourselves.

The first article "Bush and the Generals" by Michael C. Desch was in the May/June 2007 issue.  The thrust of the piece is that "Salute and Obey" environment has been damaging the professional military since Vietnam.  That once the civilian authority makes up it's mind on a course of action the military must implement that action even if it believes it is the a bad idea. 

The second article is a headlined response to the Desch article in the September/October 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs.  It contains responses from former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers and Richard Kohn a 45 year student of the relationship between military an it's civilian masters.  Mackubin Thomas Owens the Associate Dean of Academics and Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College.  Perennial Defense expert and commenter Lawrence J. Korb. 

Of the group I found Korb's comments to be the most intriguing especially his views on General Petraeus. 

Desch's long response to these observations is enlightening. For those with an interest in this dustup these two pieces are certainly worth the read.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Bush and Generals, Desch

Litvinenko Affair - August 2007 Summary

1-25 August

The Litvinenko Affair continued to bubble below the surface.  Most of the hits generated by my Google alert appeared to be articles and blogs that would insert Litvinenko into the text to insure a hit by the web crawlers.  However there were considerable diplomatic related stories covering the degradation in diplomatic relations between the UK and Russia. 

Of most interest to me is this article in the International Press Institute online site about the removal of the BBC Russian Language broadcast from the last Russian radio that was carrying the broadcast.  The Australian News.com.au has a related story with further details about the remaining avenues available for the broadcast to reach Russian listeners

30 August:

Apparently the only item of real interest for this month is the video news conference provided to British news persons by Andrei Lugovoi from Ekho Moskvy radio's office.  The thrust of this interview was that the UK Crown Prosecution Service has not proved their case; and in any event it was Berezovsky who killed Litvinenko.  Here is the Moscow Times.com story and here is the London Times Online version.

Axis - Eurasia Secret Services daily review for the 29th has the best (if biased) synopsis with the bonus of a statement from the Russian General Prosecutors Office that it is still waiting for evidence against Lugovoi

Technorati Tags: Litvinenko Affair, Lugovoi

 from the UK.

E-Voting Hacks - More Details From California Testing

From ACM Aug. 20 Tech News

Tech News abstracted this article from the Pacific Coast Business Times.  The article provides further background on the now notorious independent testing directed by the California Secretary of State's office.  The article asserts that even the use of paper trails would not detect the type of hacks described by the USCSB team that tested the Sequoia system. 

The USCSB team leaders recognized that a high level of skill would be required to perform the hacks, and some of the vulnerability was associated with security procedures dealing central server, but the hacks were not difficult and were discovered without access to the Sequoia source code.   

Well worth the read if you have a wirehead's interest in the e-voting area

Technorati Tags: E-Voting Machines, California, USCSB, Sequoia voting systems

Diebold Running Away From E-Voting Business

A 16 August InfoWorld article reports that Diebold has not been able to sell it's E-Voting business. The lead from the IDG service story is quoted below:

"Diebold has been unable to sell its electronic voting subsidiary, and has slashed its full-year revenue expectations for Diebold Election Systems due to controversy surrounding e-voting security, the company said Thursday.

Diebold has also established a new structure for its e-voting business, allowing it to operate more independently, the company said in a release. The e-voting business is changing its name to Premier Election Solutions, and an independent board of directors will oversee the renamed subsidiary, Diebold said."

From this stool at the end of the bar it looks like Diebold either thinks the e-voting market is going away or they no longer can stand the heat of deploying machines that a vocal component of voters no longer trust.

Technorati Tags: E-Voting Machines, Diebold election systems

Lock Down of California's E-Voting Systems

From the ACM Tech News letter for August 8 contained a link to Computerworld of the security restrictions being imposed upon the counties that use E-Voting machines. The restrictions are detailed and should be read in the article rather than summarized here.  However one paragraph in the article does deserve to be quoted here:

"California's review of e-voting has been a rushed affair, since it was kicked off in early May. That's because the state subsequently moved its upcoming presidential primary vote ahead by four months, to Feb. 5, 2008. State law requires that county registrars be given six months notice on any decertification of voting systems, forcing Bowen to come up with decisions by Friday, earlier than she had first anticipated."

Technorati Tags: E-Voting California, Diebold election systems, Sequoia voting systems, E-Voting Machines

E-Voting a Review

This 30 July

eWeek.com article provides a good review of the E-Voting situation after the California Secretary of State's report on the California machines vulnerability to hacking attacks. 

The article focus is on the implementation level versus the technical software and the election security aspects.  It has a good review of the Brazilian and Australian approaches which apparently have resulted in voter accepted and trusted e-voting in those countries.  The Australian approach is the open source way where everybody who wants it has access to the vote count software.  The article has a response against open source software from a Sequoia voting machine spokesman.   The Brazilian implementation is different in that the critical voting code is secured and controlled by the Federal Election commission and then provided to the voting machine vendors for implementation in their machines.  The article does not provide a response for that approach.  The piece is three pages long but well worth the read.

Technorati Tags: E-Voting, California. Brazil, Austrailia

Florida Calls on Diebold to Supply Voting Machine Fix by 17 August

A 1 August, Miami Herald story reports that the Florida Secretary of State has give Diebold Election Systems a deadline fix the problem quoted below or lose the right to operate in in the State. 

"The study by Florida State University found that, despite recent software fixes, an ‘‘adversary'' could use a pre-programmed computer card to swap one candidate's votes for another or create a "ballot-stuffing attack'' that multiplies votes for a candidate or issue."

Currently 25 (of 67) Florida counties use the Diebold system

Technorati Tags: E-Voting Florida, ballot stuffing, Diebold election systems