Rahul Mehta Gandhinagar LsCandidate
Why Election Commission’s “hackathon” is a shame and sham
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Summary
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Would you ask a surgeon to to bring all his equipment to patient's home and do surgery in his bedroom? Would you ask a doctor to postmortem at murder scene and not take dead body to his hospital? Hackers need EQUIPMENT to reverse engineer EVM circuits and they cant take HUGE equipment with them. Besides, ECI has sold EVMs to Sri Lank, Bangladesh and several African countries (such as Bostwana). So why is ECI scared of selling EVMs to ethical hackers trusted by Political Parties trusted by crores of voters of India?
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(link to PDF file for this FB article - see comment)
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Author : Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta, Right to Recall Party ( to be registered) ; B Tech, Computer Science, IIT Delhi ; MS, Comp Sci, Rutgers - New Jersey State Univ http://facebook.com/mehtarahulc
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TOPICS
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(1) about myself
(2) claims of us anti-EVM activists
(3) what we hackers need
(4) can hackers show EVMs’ faultlines without taking EVMs to their labs?
(5) SOLUTION?
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(1) About myself (author) :
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I did my B Tech in Computer Science from IIT-Delhi in 1990 and then did MS from Rutgers, USA. After and during my MS, I worked as hardware and software engineer for about 9 years in USA. I came back to India in apr-1999. Since then, I have been working as a software engineer and a political activist.
This article is to show that ECI’s hackathon announcement is a sham. If ECI is sincere, it should sell EVMs to hackers same was ECI sells EVMs to many countries such as Bostwana.
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(2) Claims of us anti-EVM activists
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The claims we anti-EVM-activists have been making for years are –
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(2a) it is easy for someone with very high contacts in BEL / ECI to get contracts to ship lakhs of EVMs by trucks from BEL to Collectors’ offices across India , or get contracts to repair lakhs of EVMs
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(2b) using above “touch points”, and with a staff of just a few dozen technicians, an agency like CIA, can change portions of circuits or add a very small circuit in lakhs of EVMs, in a way ECI staff will not even notice
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(2c) via replaced parts, and with a few dozen people, crores of votes in lakhs of EVMs can be changed
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(2d) thus, crores of votes in lakhs of EVMs can be changed by an agency like CIA, by colluding or forcing a few men at apex, and using mere 100-200 ground staff
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One such technique of tempering lakhs of EVMs, by changing display, with display having radio wave receiver, was shown by Shri Hariprasad Vemuru on an actual EVM in his video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlCOj1dElDY&feature=youtu.be&t=94 . There are many more techniques hackers can display.
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(3) What we hackers need
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We hackers can show several ways on “how crores of votes in lakhs of EVMs can be changed in a way no one will notice by mere few hundred ground employees” . But this is possible if and ONLY IF, ECI sells us EVMs say at twice the cost price. There is NO shortage of EVMs --- there are 14 lakh EVMs and every year ECI disposes some 1 lakh EVMs and buys new. So ECI can very well We hackers need to reverse engineer the EVMs, and for that it is necessary. So what reason does ECI have for not selling EVMs to hackers? National security? Well, 1000s of EVMs may be ISI or CIA or anyone. In addition, ECI has sold lakhs of EVMs to Bostwana, Sri Lanka and several other countries. So if giving EVMs to hackers can jeopardize security, then security is anyway gone. Surely, National Security is NOT reason. If that was the case, then Home Ministry would have never approved sale of EVMs to Bostwana etc. Does ECI want to hide something?
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(4) Can hacker make tempering process without taking EVM to lab?
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Say we ask a surgeon to bring all his equipment to patient's bedroom in his home, and do the surgery in patient's tiny bedroom in his home. Because patient cant be moved outside his bedroom. The surgeon will very likely refuse, as bringing all equipment to patient's home isnt viable. Shall we say that “surgeon has failed to cure patient”?
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Next, we can ask a forensic expert that he must bring all his equipment to crime scene, and do analysis at crime scene only. He cannot take ANY blood sample or DNA or any finger print etc outside the room. The forensic expert will say - NO. And shall we conclude that forensic expert has failed to solve the crime?.
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And next, we ask a pathologist to bring all his equipment to murder scene, and do a postmortem right at the murder scene. And we add a condition that he can not take any blood etc outside the room. The pathologists will fail to do any meaningful postmortem. And then we can say “the pathologists is a failure”.
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Thats what ECI is doing.
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To hack 1000s of pieces of a hardware, one needs to reverse engineer ONE piece of hardware first. And reverse engineering a hardware needs examination of that hardware’s electronic circuit boards under powerful microscopes - literally. The distance between wires on a circuit can be as small as 1 mm or even less, and electronic board can have 2 layers or even 7 layers or even 14 layers !!! No one can reverse engineer it within hours and never with just naked eye examination. Asking an engineer to reverse engineer a hardware with naked eye observation and within hours, is like asking a doctor to do blood analysis by merely examining blood with naked eyes. Many large equipment are needed to reverse engineer a hardware. And sometimes portions of circuits have to be sent to advance labs offshore. No hacker can bring all his equipment to ECI's office --- just as no surgeon can bring all his equipment to patient's home, and no foresinc expert can bring all his equipment at crime scene.
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And unlike surgery, reverse engineering takes WEEKS and months. And ECI will give ONLY some 5 hours to a hacker to hack an EVM.
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Now once a hacker has reverse engineered one pirce of hardware, he can temper lakhs of pieces without taking them to lab. The hacker does NOT need to take every piece of equipment to lab.
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Disallowing a hacker to analyse his equipment in his lab, and then calling him a failure is sick joke. All in all, EC's hackathon is no hackahon. It is sham
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(5) SOLUTION
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ECI has sold EVMs to Bostawana, Sri Lanka and many countries. So EVM circuit etc is NOT any national security level secret,
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We request ECI to sell EVMs to ethical hackers in India at twice or thrice the cost price or say same price they sell to Bostwana, And allow hackers to examine EVMs on their own labs. That way, hackers will show how “crores of votes can be changed by tempering lakhs of EVMs in a way ECI officials cant notice”. If ECI doesn’t sell/give EVMs to hackers, then hackathon is just a sham.
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What can YOU voter of India do?
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ECI is scared of creating a twitter id, lest voters will ask ECI over twitter. EC knows that if EC starts a twitter id, then EC will get flooded with several tweets against EVM etc. And so ECI doesnt even want to make a twitter id !! So much for Digital India !!! ECI has faith in Digital technology, but ECI itself wants to stay away from twitter !!!
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Well, since ECI doesnt have twitter-id, I would request voters and activists of India to ask @PmoIndia to request ECI to allow hackers to take EVMs to their labs for reverse engineering. Or else, hackathon is a sham.
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You may copy my tweet (copy-paste is better than retweet).
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@PmoIndia #ECI sells EVMs to Bangladesh, Bostwana. Pl ask ECI to sell EVMs to ethical hackers in India. #AllowHackersToTakeEVMsToTheirLabs .
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https://twitter.com/MehtaRahulC/status/866285050807169025
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So pls ask ECI to let hackers take EVM to hackers' labs. Otherwise, hackathon has no meaning.