Hackers show weakness in e-voting machine

It has emerged that e-voting machines similar to those intended for use in Ireland have been hacked in the Netherlands.

It has emerged that e-voting machines similar to those intended for use in Ireland have been hacked in the Netherlands.

Dutch television station Nederlands 1broadcast a programme in which the Nedap hardware was infiltrated by an anti-e-voting group that made the machine produce incorrect results.

The group of Dutch IT specialists said it used documents obtained from Ireland's Department of the Environment and found the process to be relatively simple.

The anti-e-voting group said: "Compromising the system requires replacing only a single component, roughly the size of a stamp, and is impossible to detect just by looking at the machine".

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Colm MacCarthaigh of Irish Citizens for Trustworthy E-voting (ICTE) said: "The attack presented by the Dutch group would not need significant modification to run on the Irish systems.

"The machines use the same construction and components, and differ only in relatively minor aspects."

The hackers also managed to run a computerised chess programme on the machine.

Labour Party environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said the latest development vindicated the vigorous political and public opposition to e-voting.

Mr Gilmore said: "Were it not for the Opposition, backed-up by public opinion, blowing the whistle on e-voting we would now be proceeding towards a general election using voting machines that a group of Dutch hackers managed to penetrate and play video games on.

"If ever anything demonstrates the vulnerability of these machines and the stupidity of using them for democratic elections, it is this television exposé. Ireland would have been a laughing stock had we proceeded with elections on this basis."

E-voting has been a casue of ongoing embarrasment for the Government, having been under the remit of three environment ministers: Noel Dempsey, Martin Cullen and the current minister Dick Roche.

Last July, the Commission on Electronic Voting found a number of security issues surrounding Ireland's e-voting system mainly associated with the operating software.

It also said security protocols for the transportation and storage of sensitive election information was insufficient but only recommended minor changes to the Nedap machines.

The machines were bought for €40 million, and millions more have been spent on storage in a project that has cost at least €52 million.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has also backed the project and told the Dáil in July that "the machines have been validated beyond any question by an international commission".