Re: cypherpunks Digest, Vol 120, Issue 160

Replying to two points form Karl. First, Karl writes: "Given we have seen chip manufacturers placing hidden hardware backdoors in common microcontrollers, it seems like the use of almost any voting machine would severely undermine the intent of democracy, unless the contents are presented for full public review." Just to clarify a factual matter. The breach of the Coffee County elections building consisted of multiple intrusions in Jan 2021, each performed by a different operative or operatives. The very first intrusion, on January 7, 2021, involved (among others) four employees of Atlanta-based cyber forensics firm Sullivan Strickler. I confirmed with computer security expert for the plaintiffs Kevin Skoglund that THAT team -- I'm unsure about the later operatives -- did NOT copy any firmware from the voting computers. Seems to me ALL the operatives were moreso after operating systems, software, higher-level code, but I've only confirmed that for SullivanStrickler and their Jan 7 2021 intrusion. Second, Karl writes: "The cryptographic software communities have developed working examples of transparent voting protocols for decades now, in the hopes of these things being adopted by governments." I would appreciate any hyperlinks to these communities. I think the source code for any voting computers -- say, robustly audited optical scanners processing handmarked paper ballots -- needs to be free/open software, fully available to public inspection, always. How to get from where we are now, to there, is a difficult question. Doug

Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2023 14:54:46 -0400 From: "Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many" Cc: Cypherpunks Subject: Re: New by me at BradBlog/BradCast: Elections breach cover-up in rural town with national implications Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

My attempt at my conventional thoughts and opinions:

- Given we have seen chip manufacturers placing hidden hardware backdoors in common microcontrollers, it seems like the use of almost any voting machine would severely undermine the intent of democracy, unless the contents are presented for full public review.

- The cryptographic software communities have developed working examples of transparent voting protocols for decades now, in the hopes of these things being adopted by governments. These are some of the same groups that have struggled as politics have heaved.

[sorry, i had a couple more items but I've forgotten them. i've only read a little bit of the article, it's intense, it's great to see]

It's notable that there are a number of different severely important things here. Many different important and dangerous topics are involved here at once. This can make it hard to integrate the material and possibly easier for partisan influences to change the story.