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June 29, 2007
It's Worse Than That...
It's worse than that - he's dead Jim!
Dr McCoy was noted for uttering the above when presented with an obviously deceased Red Shirt in Star Trek. It could equally have been used by observers at the recent Scottish elections in reference to the exercise in e-democracy.
We were surprised by the scale of the problems our team observed on polling day. Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to verify the accuracy of the elections we monitored.
The Open Rights Group observed the Scottish elections and had also been involved in previous e-voting pilots. In their report they offering a damning review of the introduction of e-voting, highlighting flaws in the procurement, implementation and operation of such systems.
The report makes reference to grave concerns raised in previous pilots in England, which were extant in the Scottish elections. It would appear that the Government's determination to introduce alternative voting methods took precedence over democratic standards.
Whilst only the most tenuous claims of fraud were voiced, the report clearly shows that the systems used were both open to fraud and incapable of effectively auditing the process in such a manner as to be able to identify incidences of fraud. Audit trails were so weak as to make identification of perpetrators nigh on impossible.
Furthermore, as previously noted, ORG is concerned that actions taken by suppliers were often outside the bounds of systems that created audit trails. Technicians were observed having to make modifications behind the scenes of the ecounting or e-voting systems to resolve problems. These changes, at more fundamental technical levels than the systems causing problems, were beyond the audit systems’ controls and so any changes made, whether legitimate or not, would not have been captured in the audit trails.
So there have been instances where technicians were actually making low level changes during the counting process. And no way of easily auditing the changes made.
ORG observers noted that the DRS vote-scanning machines had open, unguarded USB, parallel and serial ports available, as well as a CD drive.
Okay, so this may appear a bit obscure, but leaving external ports unsecured presents an opportunity for unathorised software to be introduced, and leaves little opportunity for auditing.
It was also observed in Edinburgh and East Dunbartonshire that the network infrastructure had not been secured. Network hubs were left on the floor with power and network connections loose. In one case in Edinburgh a hub was observed in easy reach of attendees with ports free lying beneath a table providing an opportunity for unauthorised access to the e-counting system’s network.
During final RO adjudication, an error appeared when the RO tried to save the results of an adjudication: “Unable to complete requested operation. Do you wish to retry Yes/No?” Agents reported to ORG observers that this error had appeared several times previously.
Just the sort of thing to fill a returning officer with dread.
The RO went through a number of A4 printouts from an Excel spreadsheet. It was identified that votes for the SNP had not been included during the calculations; the omission of SNP votes was probably owing to the spreadsheet operator’s inability to see all the parties’ votes on the computer screen at the same time.
And the final results are based on an Excel spreadsheet for God's sake! How more error prone and insecure can the process be. A wrong result was almost declared simply because the returning officer relied on the output from an Excel spreadsheet which had been manually compiled. Zero accountability or auditing...
The report makes for depressing reading as the deficiencies highlight would, if left unaddressed before widespread implementation, fundamentally undermine democracy. The full report can be found here.
Posted by Clive at 5:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 27, 2007
Not the End
As Blair finally leaves Downing St there is a temptation to view this as the end of the worst excesses of Blairism and the New Labour project. But in the words of a truly great Prime Minister
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
For starters, the transfer of power from Blair to Brown is a travesty of democracy, greater than that when Major succeeded Thatcher. At least in 1990 the Conservatives actually held a leadership contest, whereas the Parliamentary Labour Party took, in a craven act of aquiesence, the coward's way out and simply annointed Brown. In 2005 Blair told his constituents and the electorate that he would stand for a full term, yet a mere two years later he has betrayed both.
Will Brown call a general election in order to legitamise his premiership? Only if polls make a victory look likely. Until then, the Labour Party will remain tarnished and untrustworthy in the eyes of many. And Iraq will remain a devisive issue:
The Independant - Gordon Brown Answers Your QuestionsIn an answer of one word, and with the benefit of hindsight, was it wrong to invade Iraq?
SIMON O'CONNOR, Liverpool
No.
You were the one person who could have stopped Blair signing up to the invasion of Iraq, either by threatening to quit or publicly opposing it. How do you feel about putting your career ahead of the lives of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of British soldiers?
SARAH HILLS, Guildford
I don't doubt that you hold your views about the war sincerely. We know it has been a divisive issue for our party and our country, but I hope you'll accept that I hold my views sincerely too. There's no doubt that mistakes were made in our planning for what happened after the removal of Saddam, and I think it's important to learn the lessons and to go forward knowing that proper procedures are going to be in place that will command the confidence not just of Parliament but the confidence of the public. We will learn all the lessons that need to be learnt.
Do you ever wake in the night and think of all those dead Iraqi children?
ANN PHILLIPS, by email
Any such loss of life is a tragedy. As Prime Minister, I will work tirelessly for peace and security for all the children in Iraq, and for the safe return of our armed forces once their job is done.
After the nightmare of Iraq, will you promise not to join any American invasion of Iran?
CALLUM MACINTYRE, Aberdeen
There is no plan to attack Iran. We have always wanted to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear programme through diplomacy and negotiation. This means we must work through the UN and the EU as we have done each time Iran has failed to comply with the will of the international community. In turn Iran must take its responsibilities seriously and comply fully with the Security Council's resolutions.
So obviously Gordon shared Tony's approach to Iraq. Strike One!
Then a quick glance at devolution and the state of the Union.
Do you think it's right that you can vote in Parliament on issues affecting English people but English MPs can't vote on issues affecting your own Scottish constituents?BRIAN MACKENZIE, by email
I think a system where MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were excluded from voting in the Commons would inevitably lead to the break-up of the Union so I will never support it.
How do you feel about the growing divisions between England and Scotland, such as in health treatments, higher education and long-term care for the elderly? Doesn't it make all this Britishness stuff rather absurd?
BEN JAY, Bath
Of course devolution means that different choices can be made on issues that are reserved to the Scottish Parliament. But I believe the values that unite us as British people are stronger than any policy differences between the regions and nations of the country.
So no change, just a continued muddle that will please no one south of the border and may very well lead to the eventual breakup of the Union. Strike Two!
Continuing, we find this little gem.
What's a bigger danger - global warming or jihadi terrorism?TOM CHURCH, by email
Both are massive dangers, and the truth is - while every other country in the world tends to make trade-offs and choose priorities - Britain is the only country simultaneously taking the lead in fighting all the great dangers the world faces: global warming, international terrorism, nuclear proliferation and world poverty. I am proud of that, and that will continue under my government.
So Brown's solution to global warming is to introduce new nuclear power stations; his approach to unclear proliferation is to replace Trident with a new weapons system. And his answer to international terrorism is to not rule out further unlawful invasions of sovereign states and not to express regret or apologise for the Iraq fiasco.
Strike Three!
Brown is going to be a dismal failure as Prime Minister. While he was at the Treasury he had so much autonomy that most domestic policy was effectively under his control anyway. So the failings of the NHS, education, pensions, etc can all be laid at his door. We now know that he wholeheartedly supported Blair's foreign policy as well. Don't believe him when he claims that his will be a government of substance rather than spin.
The Labour Party had a golden opportunity to move forward from Blair, an opportunity that it squandered. Now both the Party and the Country must prepare to reap a bitter harvest.
Posted by Clive at 12:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Silver Ring Thing redux
I've blogged about the Silver Ring Thing before, most recently in June last year when the Playfoot case first broke.
The UK Today - The Silver Ring's The Thing
Over at the Ministry of Truth, Unity has done an exceptional job (with the able assistance of Tim from Bloggerheads) of exposing the dark underbelly of Silver Ring Thing in the UK.
Ministry of Truth - Silver Bling Thing
But what none of the articles mention is that Heather Playfoot is the company secretary of Silver Ring Thing (UK) Ltd, a not for profit company set up in the last year as the UK arm (or perhaps franchise might be a better term) of the Philadelphia-based originators of this programme.
Ministry of Truth - Asexual Nazis for God
Several internet postings from 2000 onwards describe Pfeiffer as Potter’s girlfriend, which sounds ordinary enough until you also discover that Clive Potter is a senior figure in the British National Party, a former parliamentary candidate in Leicester East North-West Leicestershire, President (last year, at least) of its fake Trade Union, Solidarity and also President of the BNP’s religious front operation, the self-styled ‘Christian Council of Britain‘.
Regardless of your position on chastity, I urge you to read both posts and consider what underlying motives are at play here.
Posted by Clive at 11:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 12, 2007
Effing bastards
I'm really not sure who to direct my ire at the most, the folks at Six Apart who have neglected Movable Type for the best part of two years; or the scumbag trackback spammers who effectively trashed the server this blog is on.
And the tossers are still at it. I can see from the error logs that they're hitting a renamed and non-executable trackback script every 4 seconds. May they die a slow, agonising and unpleasant death.
Also affected were Bob Piper, Craig Murray, Boris Johnson and Bloggerheads. All are now back.
Posted by Clive at 1:01 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 7, 2007
Good News
Excellent news that Felicity Lowde who has been cyber-stalking Rachel, amongst others, has now been arrested.
Oxford Mail - Cyberstalker Caught.
Cyberstalker Felicity Jane Lowde has been caught by police as she sat in an Internet cafe typing away.
Lowde, 41, has been on the run since April after she was convicted of harassing July 7 bombing survivor Rachel North with dozens of abusive messages on the Internet.
Hopefully Rachel will now get the piece and quiet that she deserves.
(Thanks to Unity for the link)
Posted by Clive at 8:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack