Tuesday, May 19, 2009

linux journal (2004) on EVM fraud

may 19th, 2009
 
 

11 comments:

non-carborundum said...

From all this there is no doubt that EVM fraud is possible. Why there was no further discussion or investigative action on this is suspicious. And it is not just a matter of whether or not such fraud occurred in this election, but that it can.

Rajeev is right when he says embedded systems cannot be trusted fully and that is the exact reason why electromechanical relays are used in control rooms of power stations, refineries etc even to this day even though their logic can be replicated at a fraction of the cost with embedded systems. Yet, our election commission is comfortable with leaving the fate of the nation in the hands of possibly, some Chinese hacker.

Also, the "Black Box" state of the EVM is shocking even to me and I don't work in IT. At any rate, many plausible theories on generation of trigger codes through unique sequences of voters, number of people that need to be in on the scam etc can be conjectured.

Can EVMs be constructed without using embedded circuits but only say, logic gates and relays? If so, the logic can be easily audited. I also wonder if there were any technical discussions etc held on this matter, and what sort of minutes were recorded and whether someone did oppose the adoption of EVMs. Maybe the right people can get this information out using RTI.

I think one must forward links to such articles to as many people as possible. Maybe this would trigger an investigation by CBI (Congress Bureau of Investigation).

Communal said...

Rajeev,

From past couple of days you have written many posts relating to EVM frauds. In this regard, I would like to know as to what makes you think this way?

If we look at each of the states where the Cong won handsomely there are specific reasons for their victory.

non-carborundum said...

Prof. Indiresan Commitee Report on Electronic Voting Machines provided by the Election Commission of India through RTI.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6794194/Expert-Committee-Report-on-EVM

Blog from where I got this link

http://theoverlord.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/the-indian-electronic-voting-machines/

Seems there is a control unit and a ballot unit. What if there is a small transmitter / receiver in the microchip of the control unit that activates some code after being triggered by a unique signal? Or maybe the transmitter / receiver is embedded in the cable that connects the control unit and the ballot unit. Maybe the right unlocking signal can be sent through signal convolution in all the mobile networks in the country. It would require the collusion of no more than a handful of operators.

Quite far fetched but not impossible at all. I just do not want to believe that most voters are idiots, in which case they collectively deserve this government and the fate that awaits the country.

blogger said...

Rajeev and others, please check this out:

The room for suspicion is in Vaiko’s constituency. How is it that while counting, the votes increased by 23,000 more than the polled votes? There is a register of polled votes. When it is counted, it is much more than that. It means there was rigging also. Those who rigged must have gone overboard in Vaiko’s constituency!

http://election.rediff.com/interview/2009/may/19/loksabhapoll-cho-ramaswamy-on-election-2009.htm

nizhal yoddha said...

sudhir, there is always post-facto rationalization. if the kkkangress had been trounced, the 'analysts' would have come up with equally plausible-sounding explanations for it. these guys are looking at the micro picture and diving patterns where there are none (just like technical analysts in the stock market do). the big picture is: how could all of the kkkangress' enemies suddenly be hit simultaneously? why do you have to have complex explanations which contradict each other?

there is a similar case from astronomy. the godmen of the vatican came up with elaborate epicycle theories to explain the movement of the celestial bodies. this included cycles within cycles, incredibly complex and bizarre. all this was to maintain that the earth was the center of the universe.

at a stroke, galileo was able to demolish all these complexities. the simple explanation that the sun was the center of the solar system and the earth went around it negated the need for any complicated theory.

similarly, if you accept that fraud happened, there is no need to ratiocinate to such lengths.

you also said i am judging the kkkangress too early. what, after 60 years of their rule, especially the 5 years of utter misrule we just saw? what, if anything, will be different this time? answer: yes, they will accelerate the christist-ization of india, advance the nehruvian stalinist agenda, give up kashmir to pakistan, oppress hindus.

nizhal yoddha said...

non carborundum, the trasmit/receive angle is a red herring. all machines can come from the factory with the trojan program embedded in it. it is activated selectively in some polling booths, not by the EC officials (although they could, too), but by a local polling agent from the kkkangress. he is told to press a known sequence of keys which activates the sleeping trojan. of course, only very trusted agents of the kkkangress will do this (and it is possible to have a large number of fanatics who will not spill the beans -- just ask v prabhakaran, formerly of sri lanka).

non-carborundum said...

I guess it is a red herring. Many years back I saw on TV, a news presentation on Intel motherboards that were sent to Iraq that had these small transmitters embedded for spying purposes. Anyway, the fact that so much speculation is possible on the method of subversion is scary enough. If there's a way there's a will.

Unknown said...

non carborundum, yes, it is entirely possible to make alternative chips that have a radio in them, so that they can be activated via the cellular network. it would be a little tricky to swap these in for the original, un-networked chips, though.

do you have details of the iraq story? i had heard it was HP printers that were bought by anti-aircraft batteries in iraq, and these had GPS capability embedded in them. they were turned on remotely by passing satellites, and thereafter dutifully reported their locations to the satellite, enabling US aircraft to pinpoint the anti-aircraft guns.

nizhal yoddha said...

sorry, 's' is me, i was logged into another account at the time.

nizhal yoddha

non-carborundum said...

Not able to find details on the Iraq transmitter story.

witan said...

Was "staggering" of the elections over a long period also part of the methodology used for hacking and controlling the EVMs? The electronics experts needed the time!