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Maryland Electronic Voting Systems Found Vulnerable

Yet more e-voting scandal. This one from SlashDot. Apparently hackers are helping to test voting machines…theres a show on NPR.

From this story and the one on NPR, the state hired a company and set up a test voting precinct and had the group try whatever they could to break into the machines. Most of the attacks would probably be noticed by an even-half-awake poll staff, but some vulnerabilities were exposed. The net seems to be that you could really mess up individual machines, but the grail would be to get to the central collection servers and send a megavote to your favorite candidate. The last paragraph mentions problems that voting machines had in the last election in Virginia; it’s interesting to note that those use wireless networking–my jaw has dropped onto my keyboard and I can’t comment any further.”

Keep matters for a time in suspense

Admiration of their novelty heightens the value of your achievements. It is both useless and insipid to play with your cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, do not be too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary conversation. Cautious silence is the sacred sanctuary of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of—it only leaves room for criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate. Besides, you imitate the divine way when you inspire people to wonder and watch.

Are the spammers creating bogus weblogs?

Ok, guys, I’m really p****d off.

This morning I noticed referral spam in my referrals on Webalizer, and on the referrals list on the right side of this page. This referral came after a suspicious email, that I replied to in order the verify authenticity. Here was the original email:

My name is Mark, and I’m the link manager
of http://mywebdreams.blogspot.com/ and http://iraqnewsonline.blogspot.com/.
I am writing to you to request a link exchange between our blogs.
Links to your blog will be placed on all blog’s pages above Archives inscription in the right column.
Our codes:
“”http://mywebdreams.blogspot.com Ilia Dreams Blog“”

“”http://iraqnewsonline.blogspot.com Iraq War Blog“”

Regards,
Mark Chermak mailto:mydiary@greatestphysicists.com

Now, you can tell why I was suspicious. This is not exactly a typical email I would receive asking to be added to my blogroll. So I did reply, asking where this person found me and why they wanted to add me. Maybe I was naieve to do so, but I felt I should verify.

Gavin,

I found your blog in google.com
and I want to link exchange with your blog – it’s very
informative(realy) blog.

Mark.
Both emails now appear to be automated. Though I could be wrong. I looked at the blogs. While they appear to be normal – they come across as somewhat false. I am not sure if they are legitimate, but again I could be wrong.

I became more suspicious when I received a second email, with the same subject line, and the same content, but a different blog.

Hello.
I want to offer an exchange links between your blog and my own blog.
My blog (URL ) : http://trolles.blogspot.com/
If you have agreed to exchange links with my blog, than post my link (HTML code) on your blog
My link (HTML code):
<"http://trolles.blogspot.com/">Troll’s Blog

So what to do? The spam is not chewing up bandwidth like previous spams, its not comment spam, its referral spam but, how does one stop it?

So far I’ve blocked the IP address of the spammer in a .htaccess file, and various subdomains just in case. This does not appear to have worked. Next step is beefing up my robots.txt file.

Has anyone got dodgy emails followed by dodgy referral spam?

Kangaroo

I’ve been wondering for the last few days why my weblog has been receiving more than the average number of visitors. It appears it’s down to a photograph of a kangaroo in my photos section. Its ranked in the top 100 on Google images – along with my picture of a cheetah.

I am now getting about 550 visitors a day. Feck.

Sept. 11 tape: courage amid chaos, Betty Ann Ong

I am still amazed by stories such as this, its been over 2 years since that day, and yet my interest, it seems, will never go away.

Perhaps its having lots of relatives working in airlines, and having quite a bit of knowledge about aircraft and airlines that fascinates me. Or maybe its just Ms. Ong, with her Purser (most senior cabin crew after the Captain and FO) stabbed and apparently dead, along with an FG1 (first class cabin crew), Ong got on the phone and told people calmly what was going on.

I never knew that a gas, perhaps mace, was used to subdue people on the aircraft.

Stirring stuff.

I missed a good night

Sounds like everyone had a good time at the debate on blogging in the House of Commons last night. I wish I could have made it. I did attend the last event in the Grand Committee room, and have met everyone that was there, besides a couple of bloggers with whom I have recently become acquainted online.

The best commentary comes from one of those I have yet to meet, Jackie D. My old mate Tom was apparently falling asleep, fellow debate regular James Crabtree was also there, along with blogger-in-training Clive.

I would hope to meet Jackie, Norman and Paul at a future event, once I get myself back in London.


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