Brad Friedman of
Brad’s Blog has just broken a huge story. Here is the first part of it.

DIEB-THROAT : ‘Diebold System One of
Greatest Threats Democracy Has Ever Known’

Identifies U.S. Homeland Security ‘Cyber Alert’ Prior to ’04 Election
Warning Votes Can be ‘Modified Remotely’ via ‘Undocumented Backdoor’ in
Central Tabulator Software!

In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months after
the 2004 Presidential Election, a “Diebold Insider” is now finally speaking
out for the first time about the…

In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months after
the 2004 Presidential Election, a “Diebold Insider” is now finally speaking
out for the first time about the alarming security flaws within Diebold,
Inc’s electronic voting systems, software and machinery. The source is
acknowledging that the company’s “upper management” — as well as “top
government officials” — were keenly aware of the “undocumented backdoor” in
Diebold’s main “GEM Central Tabulator” software well prior to the 2004
election. A branch of the Federal Government even posted a security warning
on the Internet.

Pointing to a little-noticed “Cyber Security Alert” issued by the United
States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, the source inside Diebold — who “for the
time being” is requesting anonymity due to a continuing sensitive
relationship with the company — is charging that Diebold’s technicians,
including at least one of its lead programmers, knew about the security flaw
and that the company instructed them to keep quiet about it.

“Diebold threatened violators with immediate dismissal,” the insider, who
we’ll call DIEB-THROAT, explained recently to The BRAD BLOG via email. “In
2005, after one newly hired member of Diebold’s technical staff pointed out
the security flaw, he was criticized and isolated.”

In phone interviews, DIEB-THROAT confirmed that the matters were well
known within the company, but that a “culture of fear” had been developed to
assure that employees, including technicians, vendors and programmers kept
those issues to themselves.

The “Cyber Security Alert” from US-CERT was issued in late August of 2004
and is still available online via the US-CERT website. The alert warns that
“A vulnerability exists due to an undocumented backdoor account, which could
a [sic: allow] local or remote authenticated malicious user [sic: to] modify
votes.”

To view rest of the article, please head over to
Brad’s Blog. This
could develop into something huge if the right strings are pulled.