Georgia election server wiped after lawsuit was filed

Started by Hydra009, October 26, 2017, 08:28:02 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Hydra009

QuotePlaintiffs in the lawsuit, mostly Georgia voters, want to scrap the state’s 15-year-old vote-management system â€" particularly its 27,000 AccuVote touchscreen voting machines, hackable devices that don’t use paper ballots or keep hardcopy proof of voter intent. The plaintiffs were counting on an independent security review of the Kennesaw server, which held elections staging data for counties, to demonstrate the system’s unreliability.
QuoteThe server data could have revealed whether Georgia’s most recent elections were compromised by hackers.
QuoteA 180-page collection of Kennesaw State emails, obtained Friday by the Coalition for Good Governments via an open records search, details the destruction of the data on all three servers and a partial and ultimately ineffective effort by Kennesaw State systems engineers to fix the main server’s security hole.

As a result of the failed effort, sensitive data on Georgia’s 6.7 million voters â€" including social security numbers, party affiliation and birthdates â€" as well as passwords used by county officials to access elections management files remained exposed for months.
Quote

Based on his review of the emails, Lamb believes that electronic polling books could have been altered in Georgia’s biggest counties to add or drop voters or to scramble their data. Malicious hackers could have altered the templates of voting machine memory cards to skew results. An attacker could even have potentially modified “ballot-building” files to corrupt the outcome, said Lamb, who works at Atlanta-based security firm Bastille Networks.
QuoteWiping the server “forestalls any forensic investigation at all,” said Richard DeMillo, a Georgia Tech computer scientist following the case. “People who have nothing to hide don’t behave this way.”
Source

Awfully suspicious behavior.

And in Georgia's House of Representatives special election - the most expensive House election in history - the GOP candidate squeaked by, winning an extremely close election.

According to The New York Times, the unexpected results were "demoralizing" for Democrats but fortunate for Trump, who "got fresh hope for his stalled legislative agenda."  How *very* fortunate for Trump, the GOP candidate, and Georgia's GOP Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the man overseeing the election servers, both during the election and during the mysterious erasure.  Btw, he's running for Governor next year.

SGOS

Not to worry.  Everything is OK.  It's a computer.  No computer has ever been hacked.  No program has ever been known to render false data.  Nothing bad can happen because it's a computer.  Voters can sleep well.  It's OK that the records no longer exist.  They were correct.  You can trust us because we are the government.

Shiranu

I think everyone involved with wiping the server needs to be instantly jailed for destruction of evidence. Can regular citizens, in the middle of a lawsuit, just destroy evidence with everyone knowing and get away with it?
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Hydra009

Quote from: Shiranu on October 26, 2017, 09:17:11 PMI think everyone involved with wiping the server needs to be instantly jailed for destruction of evidence.
"J.Tom Morgan, a former Georgia prosecutor, said destruction of the drive would not be a criminal act unless it was in violation of a protective court order (It appears no such order was requested). But it could seriously damage the defendants’ case, he said."

Strange that you have to specifically ask the court to protect the server data as evidence.  You'd think that'd be assumed.  Apparently not.

Baruch

Quote from: SGOS on October 26, 2017, 09:02:33 PM
Not to worry.  Everything is OK.  It's a computer.  No computer has ever been hacked.  No program has ever been known to render false data.  Nothing bad can happen because it's a computer.  Voters can sleep well.  It's OK that the records no longer exist.  They were correct.  You can trust us because we are the government.

The FBI went around trying to hack various state election board computers.  Who is the enemy?  Yes, thank goodness we use paper ballots here.  So primitive.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Shiranu on October 26, 2017, 09:17:11 PM
I think everyone involved with wiping the server needs to be instantly jailed for destruction of evidence. Can regular citizens, in the middle of a lawsuit, just destroy evidence with everyone knowing and get away with it?

Hillary much?  DNC much?  Some of that was already under subpoena from Congress ... and it got deleted by Obama.  When will the Democrats jail their own people ... when will the Muslims kill their own terrorists ...
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Hydra009 on October 26, 2017, 10:46:43 PM
"J.Tom Morgan, a former Georgia prosecutor, said destruction of the drive would not be a criminal act unless it was in violation of a protective court order (It appears no such order was requested). But it could seriously damage the defendants’ case, he said."

Strange that you have to specifically ask the court to protect the server data as evidence.  You'd think that'd be assumed.  Apparently not.

No it is not.  Attorneys are much more clever than you or I.  But here was data, on another server, under subpoena (and thus protected) and they wiped it anyway.  Y'all are just a bunch of simple country folk, being taken to the cleaners by city slickers.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Hydra009

Quote from: Baruch on October 26, 2017, 10:58:37 PMThe FBI went around trying to hack various state election board computers.  Who is the enemy?
Actually, the FBI may actually be the one silver lining in this case.

The FBI made an exact system image of the server back in March.  If they can find it again, they might hand over some incriminating evidence to the prosecution.  Lots of ifs and mights in that sentence, but it's better than nothing.

Hydra009

Quote from: Baruch on October 26, 2017, 11:00:45 PMHillary much?  DNC much?
For the record, I was pretty aghast at that, as well.  Just like I'm aghast at Kushner, Bannon, Priebus, and Ivanka (I might've missed a couple) similarly using private emails to conduct official business.  Clinton wiping her server angered me but Georgian officials may have potentially exposed citizens' personal information and cast doubt on the legitimacy of Georgia's recent elections to boot.

If conservatives have principles and are consistent, they'll raise a fuss about this, too.  If not, you'll know what principles they truly hold and which they're just pretending to have.

Baruch

Traditionally, this was all private snail mail and rotary phone ... and a gentleman would never read another persons snail mail, or wire tap their phone ;-)  And politicians used to keep excess campaign funds in their own personal account.  Of course they can still legally front run the finance markets (inside trade) ... because they are so poor ...
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Shiranu

Quote from: Hydra009 on October 26, 2017, 10:46:43 PM
"J.Tom Morgan, a former Georgia prosecutor, said destruction of the drive would not be a criminal act unless it was in violation of a protective court order (It appears no such order was requested). But it could seriously damage the defendants’ case, he said."

Strange that you have to specifically ask the court to protect the server data as evidence.  You'd think that'd be assumed.  Apparently not.

Alright, I now just don't know why Americans even remotely pretend the law is equal; it's not equal for the rich vs the poor, it's not equal for whites vs blacks, it's not equal for men vs women... shit, at this point I'm wonder who it is at all equal for. I guess if I am ever in deep shit, I'll just roll the dice and destroy incriminating evidence and refer to this case... the court never specifically said what was or wasn't evidence and that I couldn't destroy it, so tally ho set me free!
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Cavebear

Quote from: Hydra009 on October 26, 2017, 08:28:02 PM
Source

Awfully suspicious behavior.

And in Georgia's House of Representatives special election - the most expensive House election in history - the GOP candidate squeaked by, winning an extremely close election.

According to The New York Times, the unexpected results were "demoralizing" for Democrats but fortunate for Trump, who "got fresh hope for his stalled legislative agenda."  How *very* fortunate for Trump, the GOP candidate, and Georgia's GOP Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the man overseeing the election servers, both during the election and during the mysterious erasure.  Btw, he's running for Governor next year.

The Coalition For Good Government is a fake organization.  Any info from is is suspect.

Coalition For Good Government is estimated to generate $56,000 in annual revenues, and employs approximately 1 people at this single location.
Sector:    Business Services
Category:    Business Services, nec
Industry:    Business Activities At Non-commercial Site
SIC Code:    7389
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Hydra009

Weird.

According to the article, the suit was filed by "a diverse group of election reform advocates" and that the plantiffs are "mostly Georgia voters".  So some rando (good intentioned or not) being involved doesn't make or break this case for me.  And of course, pulling the plug looks really bad regardless.

Cavebear

Quote from: Hydra009 on October 27, 2017, 12:18:09 PM
Weird.

According to the article, the suit was filed by "a diverse group of election reform advocates" and that the plantiffs are "mostly Georgia voters".  So some rando (good intentioned or not) being involved doesn't make or break this case for me.  And of course, pulling the plug looks really bad regardless.

Anyone can claim to be "a diverse group of election reform advocates".  It's called "astroturfs".  Fake "ground level up groups".  I could start one today if I wanted to pay Go-Daddy for a site.  Let's say I called it ""Advocates For America".  It could mean anything.  And I could push any agenda.  I could claim top-down  support from Trump or populist leanings against him. 
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Hydra009

Quote from: Cavebear on October 27, 2017, 12:51:08 PMAnyone can claim to be "a diverse group of election reform advocates".  It's called "astroturfs".  Fake "ground level up groups".
You could, but just calling something an astroturf doesn't necessarily mean it actually is an astroturf.  The plantiffs are identified as Georgia voters, so unless you have evidence otherwise, I'm inclined to take that at face value.