But the Pentagon is standing by the system, which could get its first test Feb. 3 in South Carolina's primary election. The four computer security experts say the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or SERVE, could be penetrated by hackers who could change votes or gather information about users. They said the system should be scrapped.
"Internet voting presents far too many opportunities for hackers or even terrorists to interfere with fair and accurate voting, potentially in ways impossible to detect," the computer experts said in a statement. "Such tampering could alter election results, particularly in close contests."
Defense Department spokesman Glenn Flood said the Pentagon was confident the system is secure.
"We knew from the start that security would be the utmost concern," Flood said. "We've had things put in place that counteract the things they talked about."
The four security experts are among 10 the Pentagon asked to study the SERVE system and look for vulnerabilities. The other six experts decided not to issue a report, Flood said.
The four experts are Aviel Rubin of the Johns Hopkins University, David Wagner of the University of California at Berkeley, David Jefferson of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and independent consultant Barbara Simons.
So far, seven states have signed on to the experimental system: Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.
Flood said the system may be available for South Carolina expatriates to use during the upcoming primary, "but for sure it will be available for the November elections."
About 6 million U.S. voters live overseas, most of them members of the military or their relatives, Flood said. The computer experts said the SERVE system is designed to handle about 100,000 votes from the seven states.
Michigan is using a separate system for its Democratic presidential caucuses.
On the Net: Security report: www.servesecurityreport.org
Quelle: Excite, 22.01.2004
