BC POLITICS
Saved by @Alex1Powell

August 2019:

Exclusive: Critical U.S. Election Systems Have Been Left Exposed Online Despite Official Denials

https://t.co/upYeltANXG

 The top voting machine company in the country insists that its election systems are never connected to the internet. But researchers found 35 of the systems have been connected to the internet for months and possibly years, including in some swing states.
But a group of election security experts have found what they believe to be nearly three dozen backend election systems in 10 states connected to the internet over the last year, including some in critical swing states.
These include systems in nine Wisconsin counties, in four Michigan counties, and in seven Florida counties—all states that are perennial battlegrounds in presidential elections.
Some of the systems have been online for a year and possibly longer. Some of them disappeared from the internet after the researchers notified an information-sharing group for election officials last year.
But at least 19 of the systems, were still connected to the internet this week, the researchers told Motherboard.
The researchers and Motherboard have been able to verify that at least some of the systems in Wisconsin, Rhode Island, and Florida are in fact election systems.
The rest are still unconfirmed, but the fact that some of them appeared to quickly drop offline after the researchers reported them suggests their findings are on the mark.
“In some cases, [the vendor was] in charge [of installing the systems] and there was no oversight. Election officials were publicly saying that their systems were never connected to the internet because they didn't know differently."
The systems the researchers found are made by Election Systems & Software (@essvote), the top voting machine company in the country.
They are used to receive encrypted vote totals transmitted via modem from ES&S voting machines on election night, in order to get rapid results that media use to call races, even though the results aren’t final.
Generally, votes are stored on memory cards inside the voting machines at polling places. After an election, poll workers remove these and drive them to county election offices.
But some counties want to get their results faster, so they use wireless modems, either embedded in the voting machines or externally connected to them, to transmit the votes electronically.
The system that receives these votes, called an SFTP server, is connected to the internet behind a Cisco firewall.
For security reasons, the SFTP server and firewall are only supposed to be connected to the internet for a couple of minutes before an election to test the transmission, and then for long enough after an election to transmit the votes.
But the researchers found some of the systems connected to the internet for MONTHS at a time, and YEAR-ROUND for others, making them vulnerable to hackers.
Hacking the firewall and SFTP server would allow an attacker to potentially intercept the results as they’re transmitted and send fake results to the FTP server, depending on how securely the ES&S system authenticates the data.
Although the election results that are transmitted via modem are unofficial—official votes are taken directly from the voting machine memory cards when they arrive at county offices—
— a significant discrepancy between the unofficial tallies and the official ones would create mistrust in the election results and confusion about which ones were accurate.
But connected to the firewalls are even more critical backend systems—the election-reporting module that tabulates the unofficial votes as well as the official ones, and the election-management system that is used in some counties to program voting machines before elections.
Gaining access through the firewall to these systems could potentially allow hackers to alter official election results or subvert the election-management system...
... to distribute malware to voting machines through the USB flash drives that pass between this system and the voting machines.”
Online, the researchers can only see the firewalls configured in front of these systems and cannot see anything behind them—a federal law makes it illegal for them to probe beyond the firewall.
But ES&S documents posted online in various counties show that these critical backend systems are connected to the firewall, and ES&S also confirmed that this is the correct architecture in counties that want to transmit results electronically.
ES&S has long insisted that election-management systems are air-gapped—that is, not connected to the internet or connected to any other system that is connected to the internet—and the company insists that the diagram it provided isn’t showing them connected to the internet.
“There’s nothing connected to the firewall that is exposed to the internet,” Gary Weber, vice president of software development and engineering for @essvote, told Motherboard. “Our [election-management system] is not pingable or addressable from the public internet.”
This makes them invisible to bad actors or unauthorized users, he said.

But Skoglund said this “misrepresents the facts.” Anyone who finds the firewall online also finds the election-management system connected to it.
“It is not air-gapped. The EMS is connected to the internet but is behind a firewall,” Skoglund said. “The firewall configuration [that determines what can go in and out of the firewall]… is the only thing that segments the EMS from the internet.”
And misconfigured firewalls are one of the most common ways hackers penetrate supposedly protected systems. The recent massive hack of sensitive Capital One customer data is a prime example of a breach enabled by a poorly configured firewall.
“If they did everything correctly [with the ES&S systems] as they say they do, there is no danger,” Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security, told Motherboard.

“These are all secure technologies that if [configured] correctly work just fine.
It’s just that we have no faith that they are done correctly. And the fact that [election officials are] saying they aren’t on the internet and yet they are on the internet shows us that we have every reason to distrust them.”
Even proper configurations won’t secure a firewall if the firewall software itself has security vulnerabilities that allow intruders to bypass all the authentication checks, whitelisting rules, and other security parameters set in the firewall’s configuration file.
“If this system hasn’t been patched and has a critical vulnerability… you may be able to subvert any kind of security scheme that you’ve put in place,” Skoglund told Motherboard.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said the findings are “yet another damning indictment of the profiteering election vendors, who care more about the bottom line than protecting our democracy.”
It’s also an indictment, he said, “of the notion that important cybersecurity decisions should be left entirely to county election offices, many of whom do not employ a single cybersecurity specialist.”
“Not only should ballot tallying systems not be connected to the internet, they shouldn’t be anywhere near the internet,” he added.
What’s not generally known by the public about @essvote systems is that the company’s entire configuration for transmitting election results—from the modem to the SFTP server—is NOT CERTIFIED BY THE ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION (EAC).
The EAC oversees the testing and certification of voting equipment at the federal level. ES&S voting machines are tested and certified, but the transmission configuration isn’t. The labs test them for functionality to make sure they transmit votes, and that’s it.
In marketing literature, ES&S highlights the certified parts of its election system in blue and labels them "EAC Certified Configuration." The uncertified part is highlighted in white and labeled "Extended Configuration."
.@essvote told Motherboard that instead of federal certification, his company has focused on working with officials in states that allow modem transmission to test and certify the configuration under their own state certification programs.
This is said to include a security assessment of the configuration. Asked which states do these security assessments, he cited Wisconsin, Florida, and Minnesota.
But someone familiar with Wisconsin’s certification testing, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Motherboard it doesn’t include a security assessment of the modem transmissions and configuration.”

More from Jewhadi™

Jewhadi\u2122
Jewhadi™
@JewhadiTM
Star-studded Time's Up charities spent big on salaries, little on helping victims @Alyssa_Milano @MiraSorvino @GloriaSteinem https://t.co/m5kM0W1UjE via @nypost

The organization, which is comprised of the Times Up Foundation and @TIMESUPNOW, raised $3,670,219 in 2018, its founding year, but spent $1,407,032 on salaries and only $312,001 on the @TimesUpLegal Defense Fund for people who have experienced sexual harassment.

Time’s Up Now, the lobbying arm of the organization, also spent $157,155 on conferences “designed to build community and spark critical conversations about gender equity,” tax filings show.

In addition to posh conferences, Time’s Up Now spent $288,007 on advertising, and $940,328 on “legal” costs, with the majority of that figure ($719,522) going to Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, a multinational law firm with a powerful lobbying arm on Capitol Hill.

Time’s Up Now also spent $58,395 on travel and $112,435 on Rally, a public relations company, according to tax filings.
CHARITY
Jewhadi\u2122
Jewhadi™
@JewhadiTM
Court upholds conviction of Chinese businessman linked to Hunter Biden

A federal appeals court upheld the criminal convictions against Patrick Ho, a Chinese businessman and think tank leader linked to President-elect Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

When Ho, one of Chinese energy tycoon Ye Jianming’s lieutenants, was charged by the Justice Department in 2017, the first call he reportedly made after his arrest was to Joe Biden’s brother, James, who has said he thought the call was meant for Hunter Biden.

Ho was indicted and convicted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for his role in a global money laundering and bribery scheme aimed at government officials in Africa.

The Justice Department also accused Ho of helping with Iranian sanctions evasion and working to use the Chinese company’s connections to sell weaponry to Chad, Libya, and Qatar. Ho was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 and was deported to Hong Kong in June.
POLITICS
Advertisement
Jewhadi\u2122
Jewhadi™
@JewhadiTM
The Threat of Authoritarianism in the U.S. is Very Real, and Has Nothing To Do With Trump

The COVID-driven centralization of economic power and information control in the hands of a few corporate monopolies poses enduring threats to political

Asserting that Trump is a fascist-like dictator threatening the foundations of US democracy has been a virtual requirement over the last 4 years to obtain entrance to cable news Green Rooms, sinecures as mainstream newspaper columnists, and popularity in faculty lounges.

Yet it has proven to be a preposterous farce.

In 2020 alone, Trump had 2 perfectly crafted opportunities to seize authoritarian power—a global health pandemic and protests and sustained riots throughout American cities—yet he did virtually nothing to exploit those opportunities.

Early in the pandemic, Trump was criticized, especially by Democrats, for failing to assert the powers he had, such as commandeering the means of industrial production under the Defense Production Act, invoked by Truman to force industry to produce materials for the Korean War.

In March, The Washington Post reported that “Governors, Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans have been urging Trump for at least a week to invoke the act, and... Joe Biden came out in favor of it, too,” yet “Trump [gave] a variety of reasons for not doing so.”
TRUMP
Jewhadi\u2122
Jewhadi™
@JewhadiTM
Biden is not smart.

Biden's Iran policy is deeply flawed https://t.co/Jlc1EC9mt6

Biden “falsely claims the Iran nuclear deal that the Obama/Biden administration negotiated has kept Americans safe. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was flawed in many ways.

For starters, it failed to do anything about Iran's terrorist activities, which is significant considering they are the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world and a leading cyber threat.

By releasing nearly $100B to Iran and omitting their nefarious activities from the agreement, not did the Obama/Biden admin reward bad behavior, but they gave Iran more money to finance its destabilizing foreign policy which includes arms transfers to terrorists & missile tests.

Iran is led by a revolutionary regime, and if the objective was to keep Americans safe, then any agreement reached with Iran should have included all the various ways they put American lives in danger.
POLITICS
Jewhadi\u2122
Jewhadi™
@JewhadiTM
Radical Muslim political advocacy orgs are celebrating the election of 62 Muslim Americans who won races at all levels of government. Their victories mark another banner year for Islamist groups that seek to train, fund, and elect their favored politicians

Among these winners are a handful of Islamist politicians who espouse radical views and associate with extremist groups.

Many of these newly elected officials belong to the far-left wing of the Democratic Party, but others have even more troubling resumés, leading Islamist student movements and nonprofits or owing their political fortunes to Islamist underwriters.

Chief among these is Democrat @akoabdulsamad, who was reelected to the Iowa state legislature’s 35th district. Since 2015 Abdul-Samad has been the chairman of the American Muslim Alliance, a controversial political action group whose leaders have promoted violence against Israel.

“The statements that are attributed to the organization and some of its members are offensive and outrageous,” Hillary Clinton said in 2000 after returning a $50,000 political donation to AMA.
RELIGION

More from Politics

Edwin Hayward
Edwin Hayward
@uk_domain_names
Handy guide for Dominic Raab and other Brexiteers, and for anyone keen to replace our EU trade with trade with the rest of the world on WTO terms...


You can't magic away the vast distances involved. Clue: we fly in only 1/192th of our trade compared to the amount that arrives via sea


But even if you invented a teleporter tomorrow, WTO terms are so bad, so stacked against us, that a no-deal Brexit will be a total economic disaster


And while the Brexiteers fantasise, real jobs are being lost, investments are drying up, companies are moving assets to the EU27 or redomiciling. All already happened and happening right now, not in some mythical


Of course, there are many, many myths that Brexiteers perpetuate that are total fiction. You've seen a couple of them already. The thread below busts a whole lot
POLITICS
Matt Fuller
Matt Fuller
@MEPFuller
They’re shooting into the chamber.
POLITICS
Advertisement
Mike Dunford
Mike Dunford
@questauthority
Election Litigation Update - Gohmert.

Reply brief is in. Let's have a look. They are, mercifully, underlength. They had 50 pages available, the PDF is 43 and some of that is cover page, signatures,

Interesting table of contents. Looks like they're packing a lot in, until you realize that much of the material that's important - like their response to the "you sued the wrong person" material and "injury in fact" take up very little space.


Looks like they decided to skip the table of authorities. Presumably GoogleDocWord ate it too bad for them to fix. This will certainly further endear them to the judge.


This is going to be interesting - leading off a reply brief with a "here's what our cause is about" is certainly a strategy. It's even a bold strategy.

Shall we dig deeper, Cotton?


"We live in a democratic republic in which the Vice President, who will more often than not be a candidate in the election, has the sole and unchallengeable power to decide who wins the election" is a hellofa take.
POLITICS
Heidi Li Feldman
Heidi Li Feldman
@HeidiLiFeldman
It takes guts to truly face hard truths. But facing them is the only way to protect oneself going forward. This is why I keep reminding people that the Republican Party is beyond repair. 1/

The Republican Party’s internal structures, at the state and federal level, are dominated by people actively opposed to democratic pluralism, rule of law, and U.S. constitutionalism. 2/

Once a political party refuses to drop its support for a leader, in this case Donald Trump, who constantly and consistently betrayed the country throughout his time in office that party cannot be salvaged as a player in U.S. constitutional democracy. 3/

Everybody else, from individual rank and file Democrats to President Joe Biden, must radically overhaul how they deal with people who do not disaffiliate from the Republican Party. 4/

Anybody who remains a Republican at this point must be presumed to be an enemy of U.S. constitutionalism, rather than as somebody with right wing policy views. 5/
POLITICS
Dirk Schwenk (Esq) \U0001f3b5
Dirk Schwenk (Esq) 🎵...
@DirkSchwenk
Ruben Verastigui is (allegedly) a horrifying pedo monster and has been on the digital teams for the @SenateGOP, National @GOP and the Trump campaign. I didn't want to talk about him, but I think it's important.


The allegations against RV are among the most horrifying I have read. It involves possessing and sharing images of rape of infants and plans to take action in the real world of that nature. I don't really recommend reading the details, but they are here.

These allegations were first brought to light by @jaredlholt who has an excellent thread. He warns people that they may want to avoid the end of the thread because it includes shots of the specific allegations. I make the same warning.


RV was a main stage speaker at the 2013 March For Life.

RV did a headshot for Ronna McDaniel, GOP Chairwoman
POLITICS

You May Also Like

sriram
sriram
@SriramKannan77
Swami Ramanujar:
Important personalities in Sri Ramanujas Life :
🌸ASURI KESHAVA SOMAYAJI-Father of Sri Ramanujar .Asuri keshava somayaji was a learned brahmana living in sriperumbudur.


🌸KANTHIMATHI-Mother of Sri Ramanuja. Kanthimathi was the sister of sri periya thirumalai nambi .
🌸SRI YAMUNACHARYA-Acharya of Sri Ramanuja.Also known as Alavandar.
🌸THIRUKOKOSHTIYUR NAMBI-Also known as Ghosti Purna.He instructed the Rahasya Traya to Sri Ramanujar.

He lived in thirukoshtiyur.
🌸THIRUKKACHI NAMBI-Kanchi purna was born in puvirunthavalli near kanchipuram and met the young ramanuja at an important time.He did the service of Lord Varadha.

🌸THIRUVARANGA PERUMAL ARAIYAR-Important acharya lived in srirangam and rendered the service of playing music for lord Sriranganatha.

🌸PERIYA THIRUMALAI NAMBI-He was the maternal uncle of Sri Ramanuja.He taught sri ramanuja about the epic of sri ramayana and other ithihaas and puranas.Served sri venkateswara at tirumala.
ALL
Nikita Poojary
Nikita Poojary
@niki_poojary
Time for a Thread🧵On yesterday’s “F&O Pe Charcha - Diary Of An Option Seller” with @Mitesh_Engr by @Paytm Money

Why Gain/loss ratio is important that the batting average
• More than the Win Loss ratio check the total Gain /loss ratio
• If your avg loss is 1% and avg gain is +5% then even if you are losing in 7 positions and winning in 3 out of 10 still you will be net profitable

Treat Trading as a business:
• Stick to a single strategy. Eg: A restaurateur usually wouldn’t be changing his recipe on a daily basis
• Mitesh Sir only works on BO or BD strategy, as he is a versatile trader

• Any trader should atleast experience 3 scenarios i.e. bull, bear & consolidation
• Target 4% per month i.e. 48% p.a.
• Option buying requires skill, everyday there wont be huge momentum, so buying options won’t yield good results, but high chances of falling into a bad habit

Stock Selection:
• In F&O segment there are ~150 stocks
• Not everyday all stocks will move
• Only 5-7 stocks move upside or downside
• Focus only these momentum stocks
• Check which one is moving
• Range BO/BD never disappoints. BO/BD from a rectangle (consolidation)
MPLEARNINGS , ALL , OPTION SELLING
Advertisement
Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
THE MEANING, SIGNIFICANCE AND HISTORY OF SWASTIK

The Swastik is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon. Swastik has been Sanatan Dharma’s symbol of auspiciousness – mangalya since time immemorial.


The name swastika comes from Sanskrit (Devanagari: स्वस्तिक, pronounced: swastik) &denotes “conducive to wellbeing or auspicious”.
The word Swastik has a definite etymological origin in Sanskrit. It is derived from the roots su – meaning “well or auspicious” & as meaning “being”.


"सु अस्ति येन तत स्वस्तिकं"
Swastik is de symbol through which everything auspicios occurs

Scholars believe word’s origin in Vedas,known as Swasti mantra;

"🕉स्वस्ति ना इन्द्रो वृधश्रवाहा
स्वस्ति ना पूषा विश्ववेदाहा
स्वस्तिनास्तरक्ष्यो अरिश्तनेमिही
स्वस्तिनो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु"


It translates to," O famed Indra, redeem us. O Pusha, the beholder of all knowledge, redeem us. Redeem us O Garudji, of limitless speed and O Bruhaspati, redeem us".

SWASTIK’s COSMIC ORIGIN

The Swastika represents the living creation in the whole Cosmos.


Hindu astronomers divide the ecliptic circle of cosmos in 27 divisions called https://t.co/sLeuV1R2eQ this manner a cross forms in 4 directions in the celestial sky. At centre of this cross is Dhruva(Polestar). In a line from Dhruva, the stars known as Saptarishi can be observed.
ALL
Anu Satheesh
Anu Satheesh
@AnuSatheesh5
Thiruvairanikulam Mahadeva Temple
Ernakulam Kerala🚩
#temples

Temple is known as Sabarimala of Women

Thiruvairanikulam Mahadeva Temple is situated on the banks of the Periyar River. Siva Temple has a separate sannidhi for Parvathi Devi which will be open only for 12 days a year


The Nadathurappu Mahothsavam happens every year on Malayalam month of Dhanu. On opening day, a grand procession starting from Akavoor Mana carries the ornaments of Devi to the temple. Swayamvara Archana is the main pooja here to clear the obstacle in marriages.
Legend is that 👇


Vigraham existed in another place called Iranikulam. A Namboodiri of Sreemoolanagaram used to visit the Iranikulam temple regularly. Akavoor Chathan, a boatman will take him to the Iranikulam temple and back. Because of Bhakthi of Namboodiri, Shiva traveled with him to his place.


Akavoor Chathan identified Siva chaitanyam and their family built a temple here. Parvati devi herself will cook Nevidyam here for Shiva, which was witnessed by a priest. Devi was angry at this and decided to leave the place. But when the priest offered his sincere apology👇


Devi blessed him and told that she will be present here 12 days in a year. Thus the period which begins from Thiruvathirai Day in Dhanu is known as the Nadathurappu festival.
Temple Nada opens today night.
Picture credit: Google.
🙏🕉🙏
ALL
Noah Smith
Noah Smith
@Noahpinion
Krugman is, of course, right about this. BUT, note that universities can do a lot to revitalize declining and rural regions.


See this thing that @lymanstoneky wrote:

And see this thing that I wrote:

And see this book that @JamesFallows wrote:

And see this other thing that I wrote:
SOCIETY