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SBE Hires Freeman, Craft & McGregor to Okay Diebold Machines |
SBE Responds to Calls for Independent Testing of Diebold Machines By
Hiring a Diebold Apologist Rather then a Security Expert to Conduct
Tests.
TrueVoteMD Calls Review a "Whitewash in the making"
Montgomery County: Over the past five months, a Finnish security
expert Hari Hursti has tested Diebold voting systems used in many
states. He found serious security vulnerabilities both in the
software, PCMCIA cards that record votes and in the procedures
surrounding the voting machines. One of these vulnerabilities was
detected by a Maryland security assessment two years ago, but Diebold
never fixed the vulnerability. The newest attack is so serious
that experts are afraid to talk about its details publicly.
As these security vulnerabilities became known the Governor expressed
his view that he no longer trusted the machines. Candidates and
citizens called for independent testing of the machines and John
Hopkins Computer Expert Avi Rubin challenged the State Board of
Elections to find computer scientists who would verify that the system
is secure.
In response to this widespread pressure from citizens, voting security
experts and political leaders, including TrueVoteMD, The Maryland State
Board of Elections recently hired Freeman, Craft and McGregor Group
Inc., to do an assessment of Diebold’s voting system security.
However the selection of this Florida firm to do the analysis has
itself raised questions.
Paul Craft is a partner in Freeman, Craft and McGregor. “We did some
research into Paul Craft’s firm and have serious concerns as to their
qualifications as security experts. There has been a lot of
criticism of Mr. Craft in regards to the weakening of security
procedures during the time he was assisting NASED in creating voting
system standards in 2005,” said Alex Zeese of TrueVoteMD.org. “
We have some of the best computer experts in the country right here in
Maryland who have been very critical of the Diebold machines. The SBE
should have had these well-qualified critics test the machines in order
to restore confidence of voters and political leaders. The
selection of this group is a whitewash in the making. With this
firm conducting the test the outcome is predictable."
TrueVoteMD has compiled research into Freeman, Craft and McGregor,
which shows a history of favoritism towards the Diebold Corporation and
a failure to recognize the seriousness of security flaws. Mr.
Craft, in particular, was involved in the revision of the national
voting system standards. He consistently advocated relaxing
standards in favor of the machine manufacturers. Another partner,
Steve Freeman, was hired by the state of California to check for
problems on their voting machines, after Maryland released the RABA
report. The RABA Report raised concerns about the security of the
GEMS Tabulators, that tabulate the results from all the machines in a
precinct/county. Despite the risks reported by RABA and
CompuWare, Freeman has repeatedly recommended the tabulators.
TrueVoteMD has published a summary of concerns about the group picked on line at: http://truevotemd.org/content/view/474/82/
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