A reader who goes by the name of "programmer" left the following comment on my post entitled "Easily Hackable? Seriously?"

programmer

April 11, 2010 • 4:34 pm (Edit)

No one is auditing and showing us the Smartmatic Datacenter. Yes, PCOS = bullet-proof. But how about the back door?

Who will audit, contest (and recount) the number of votes *in totality*?

When all electronic votes are in, the 12M votes winner can just be *easily padded* (depending on voter's turn out, it was 81% 2004) so that the secret GMA-backed presidentiable can win by a margin of 1M votes (Garci style).

With the automated election how can the public know? How can the public check? Comelec needs to be more crystal clear transparent. But this election won't be transparent.

Here's my reply:

For security reasons (OBVIOUSLY) the actual area where the main servers of the Automated Election System will be located cannot be disclosed as of this time.

Who will audit? Comelec, in cases where anomalies are detected and when such anomalies warrant an audit.

Who will contest? The candidates, poll watchers, etcetera.

Who will recount? Comelec.

Regarding padding. This is not "EASY" as one would think it is.

Like any system whose integrity must be assured, the implementation of the projects different phases are chopped up among different people. Programming of one phase of the program is done by one person, another person does networking, another person does PCOS programming, etcetera. So, in order to engineer a means of padding the results from a central area, you'd have to have the collussion or cooperation of DOZENS of people.

Moreover, you have TWO SEPARATE MACHINE COUNTS GOING ON... So, if you manage to cheat the central server, the results shown on it may be different from the results that pass through the CCS.

As for cheating on the level of the PCOS machines, as in the Princeton study (which is a DIFFERENT MACHINE ALL TOGETHER), you would have to get the cooperation of the people who either program the machines in the warehouse (who subject the machines to intensive tests before releasing them) OR get the cooperation of a substantial number of field technicians who will assist in operating the machines in the field. SUBSTANTIAL, meaning, YOU MUST GET THE COOPERATION OF HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE...

So,in the end, you may succeed in tampering with the results BUT TO TAMPER WITH THE RESULTS WITHOUT GETTING DETECTED IS IMPOSSIBLE!