In today’s Washington Post, Jonathan Krim reports on a new effort by the e-voting machine vendors to do … something or other. The article, which is titled “Voting-Machine Makers to Fight Security Criticism”, doesn’t quite say what they’re planning to do. The following two paragraphs come the closest to revealing their plans:
Electronic-voting-machine companies announced yesterday that they are banding together to counter mounting concerns about whether their machines are secure enough to withstand tampering by hackers.
…
The leading voting-machine companies, which argue that their systems are safe, have yet to put forward any proposals on addressing the concerns. But under the umbrella leadership of the Information Technology Association of America, the industry hopes to foster conversation that includes security experts, academics, local elections officials, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency overseeing technical standards.
In other words, although they “have yet to put forward any proposals”, they hope to have some conversations with people. Amusingly, the chairman of the ITAA calls this “an inflection point in the history of voting in this country.”
You’ve really gotta wonder how a non-story like this got onto page 2 of a major newspaper.
> Electronic-voting-machine companies announced
> yesterday that they are banding together to counter
> mounting concerns about whether their machines are
> secure enough to withstand tampering by hackers.
I think based on this statement we can hazard a pretty good guess as to what they plan to do: form an industry association, engage a good public relations firm, and drop some big bucks on K Street.
It’s The Power Of The Press Release. See my item
Diebold Electronic Systems And Ilk, Form Flacking Group
You’ve really gotta wonder how a non-story like this got onto page 2 of a major newspaper.I think you just answered your own question: the Washington Post no longer deserves to be called a “major newspaper”, unless your only criterion is circulation, in which case some of the tabloids would also have to be considered “major newspapers”.
“Inflection point” indeed. But with what sign?
The title of the group is rather amusing, or a little scary. “The information technology association of America” sounds very much like a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the true source in future press releases. I’m kind of expecting to see something along the lines of this on PR wire:
“Voting machines are more secure than banks” according to a study released today by the information technology association of America, a leading non-profit organization of IT and information security specialists
But they wouldn’t do anything like that, would they?
Krill