Voting in California just got more corrupt

If you live (and vote) in California, you're in luck! Your Secretary of State Debra Bowen has certified voting systems that failed security audits recently.

A group of University of California researchers hacked their way through security on nearly every voting machine certified by the state of California. What's interesting is that the research was initiated by....Secretary of State Debra Bowen! the team was able to "bypass physical and software security in every machine they tested." The group, which was sanctioned by the state, was given full access to the machines, as well as their source code and manuals. Some folks are complaining that this is "cheating"...but seriously, folks can get their hands on this stuff fairly easily if they want it.

So, this is easily resolved - the companies in question just need to supply their machines with updated firmware, disabled access to unused ports, kill the wireless connections, and so on. Basically, the companies that deny up and down their voting systems are even vulnerable are now directly responsible for making them less vulnerable per seemingly vague security-hardening guidelines.

Once again, I'll remind you - request an absentee ballot for any upcoming elections and don't forget to use it!

From Engadget.