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| (US) 1/07 - Test Lab Barred From Test... |
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Pat Vesely
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Pat_vesely
Post Number: 440
Registered: 02-2006
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 - 8:14 pm: | 
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/washington/04voting.html?ei=5094&en=363e471aee 8b4edc&hp=&ex=1167886800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 4, 2007
U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
A laboratory that has tested most of the nation’s electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests.
The company, Ciber Inc. of Greenwood Village, Colo., has also come under fire from analysts hired by New York State over its plans to test new voting machines for the state. New York could eventually spend $200 million to replace its aging lever devices.
Experts on voting systems say the Ciber problems underscore longstanding worries about lax inspections in the secretive world of voting-machine testing. The action by the federal Election Assistance Commission seems certain to fan growing concerns about the reliability and security of the devices.
The commission acted last summer, but the problem was not disclosed then. Officials at the commission and executives at Ciber confirmed the action in recent interviews.
Ciber, the largest tester of the nation’s voting machine software, says it is repairing its problems and expects to gain certification soon.
Experts say the deficiencies of the laboratory suggest that crucial features like the vote-counting software and security against hacking may not have been thoroughly tested on many machines now in use.
“What’s scary is that we’ve been using systems in elections that Ciber had certified, and this calls into question those systems that they tested,” said Aviel D. Rubin, a computer science professor at the Johns Hopkins University.
Professor Rubin said although some software bugs had shown up quickly, in other instances “you might have to use the systems for a while before something happens.”
<more>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/washington/04voting.html?ei=5094&en=363e471aee 8b4edc&hp=&ex=1167886800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
I wonder if these guys claimed ISO certification?
Pat A. Vesely ;-)
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Paper ballots are the 'Currency of Democracy'. They've been helping to curb election fraud since 139 BCE!
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Bev Harris
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Site_admin
Post Number: 432
Registered: 10-2006
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 - 8:42 pm: |
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Wow. So, Black Box Voting has only had the ommissions in the Ciber reports online for what, three years now? And photocopies of the glaring ommissions were close-upped in the HBO special "Hacking Democracy" about three times.
So they finally barred Ciber. Nothing gets by these guys, does it?
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Tom Sweet
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Tsweet
Post Number: 57
Registered: 06-2006
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 - 8:47 pm: |
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I am so glad I chose another line of work. |
Pat Vesely
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Pat_vesely
Post Number: 441
Registered: 02-2006
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 - 8:49 pm: |
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I knew you'd like this Bev!
About time, huh?
Pat A. Vesely ;-)
Paper ballots are the 'Currency of Democracy'. They've been helping to curb election fraud since 139 BCE!
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Sharon M. Foster
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Smfoster
Post Number: 85
Registered: 02-2006
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, January 4, 2007 - 4:01 am: |
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"I wonder if these guys claimed ISO certification?"
More likely they claim CMM Level 3 or better. (Capability Maturity Model, a "standard" defined by the Software Engineering Institute, and required of most military contractors.) |
Tim Gooch
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Timthefoolman
Post Number: 41
Registered: 11-2005
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, January 4, 2007 - 8:11 am: |
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And sadly, CMM 3 is not very good (in my experience), particularly for mission-critical stuff. - Tim |
Sharon M. Foster
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Smfoster
Post Number: 86
Registered: 02-2006
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, January 4, 2007 - 8:16 am: |
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"CMM 3 is not very good (in my experience)"
Agreed. It's not quite crap, but any organization with its head up its @$$ could get a level 3 certification. It's what's happening six months after that that really counts, and how many organizations apply for re-certification if they don't have to? And there are never any "surprise" audits. |
Charles Christopher
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Ilikeinfo
Post Number: 40
Registered: 11-2006
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Friday, January 12, 2007 - 6:34 pm: |
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IMHO ISO/Whatever certification means nothing.
"Quality Control" does nothing but verify a spec, Go/NoGo .... The devil's in the spec handed to QC and what that spec *REALLY* means.
For example devices have locks on them. Great! Until you find out the key that fit the lock could be had by anybody, the lock was purely for show. QC is *NOT* responsible for creating the spec it's responsible to verifing the the product meets the spec it's handed. So what does a "lock" really mean? ;)
IMHO the "certification" level, for this type of product, should by law include full accessability and debate by the public and *ANYONE* wanting access to design spec, procedured, policies, from top to bottom. Until anybody and their dog can point out a deficiency we'll never have what we need at the beginning of the food chain: A decent spec, that is not "pure software" ...
Lots of great products with extremely high quality existed LONG before "ISO" became a popular term and requirement of a manufacturer.
(Message edited by ilikeinfo on January 12, 2007) |
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