AZ, FL, GA, IA, IN, MI, NC, PA, WI were using Windows 7 in 2019 to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts. Windows 7 reached end of operational life in January 2020. Microsoft stopped providing “patches” to fix vulnerabilities, making Windows 7 easy to hack.
(www.washingtonexaminer.com)
🛑 STOP THE STEAL 🛑
Just because they weren't actively patching the vulnerabilities doesn't make it any more vulnerable than it was. Or quite frankly, any more vulnerable than using ANY version of Windows. Windows 10 probably has additional vulnerabilities intentionally put there so Microsoft could exploit the process.
Windows is trash, and I hate every second I have to use it for work.
This issue doesn't seem to be the problem. There doesn't seem to have been a hack as much as an intentional screwing with the data through the functions built into the software.
But don't they seem to be saying that anyone with basic Windows 7 capabilities could create a bunch of extra ballots, say, like the ones that began turning up on November 4th and 5th?
This would attest to poor patch management. It doesn’t speak well of their InfoSec strategy, but I believe the Most pressing issue at hand has to do with the software being utilized and the glitch/feature. This must have been the backup plan. It makes sense now how they were slow rolling the votes on Election Day and then decided to stop counting. This was The “circuit breaker trip” Before moving into the contingency plan of utilizing the glitch. Very sneaky. Lots of empirical data that points to irregularities that must be investigated.
If I remember my MS Partner days correctly, Microsoft run a special support function expressly for government users of their OS. I think back in 2010 they were still supporting Windows 95 in some critical applications.
Not sure if this is the case, but it costs a TON of money to do it, taxpayers money, so it doesn't really count... 😠
Was this offered directly from MS or through a 3rd party?
I've seen some weird LTS agreements from companies that don't hold and couldn't get source code if they tried.
You pay enough and someone will insure... I mean support anything!
Via MS, there is no way they're going to turn down a possibly huge revenue stream as changing the OS in say a Cruiser is not possible without potentially 100's millions in investment.
Correct and anyone still using Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise could likewise pay Microsoft some money to keep the OS up to date for three years after the sunset.
This is completely irrelevant to anything.
>inb4 "shill doomer shill doomer"
The only way a hacker would have access to that information is if they're already operating with the machines (which means more assumptions and complications than just a bad actor flipping votes), or if they have access to the network the machines are using (in which case, it would be easier to plant a man-in-the-middle attack or target said network).
Furthermore, this doesn't explain any of the "glitches" unless the 'mysterious hacker' got into each machine across several states all within hours of each other, only targeted contested states, and coincidentally targeted specific districts which already had several existing anomalies in their counting process.
I'm surprised they weren't using Windows XP.
No proprietary software should ever be used in elections. This includes the operating system.
Binary blobs cannot be audited properly.
Open Source code that is publicly auditable is the only way to get close to any security on the back end.
Also no one should profit off of our elections. It creates a huge security hole for those wishing to pay for results.
This is extremely simple tabulating code. Far simpler than a TI-84 calculator. No patents, no corporate control over any part of our voting system including the operating system should be tolerated.
Windows fucking 7?!?
To their credit, at least they weren't using windows me. Or vista.
Windows 7 was one of the better ones.