03 September 2010

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Researcher Hari Prasad is he a thief or real hero of India who opened the eyes of India? India's EVM are Vulnerable to Fraud.

Researcher Hari Prasad is he a thief or real hero of India who opened the eyes of India? India's EVM are Vulnerable to Fraud.


Reality views by sm –
Friday, September 03, 2010

Hari Prasad and his team have proved that Indian Voting machines are not safe and trustworthy, they can be tampered and bogus, and fraud voting is possible using Indian EVM.

For doing this activity and for proving his point,
Now Hari Prasad is facing theft accusations and he was arrested recently for doing theft of electronic voting machine.

Hari Prasad was arrested from Hyderabad on in connection with the theft of an EVM from Mumbai the arrest was made to question Hari into naming the ‘anonymous’ source that he claims was responsible to supply that EVM to the researchers.


The researchers got an EVM from one of the EC's warehouses, and were able to hack it and demonstrate several ways of tampering with it, including the use of radio-aware chips that would enable a Bluetooth-based cell phone outside a booth to manipulate the machines.

The vaunted process of the EC was, however, not even aware of the missing machine for several months!
If was only by looking at the serial number on a videotape of the hacked machine that the EC identified which warehouse that EVM came from.
This puts in doubt the physical security of the devices.

If this defects shown by Hari and his team are not removed then what is the use of voting in next election, when we know that using cell phone one can change our vote.

Did you notice media is silent on this topic?
Political parties are silent on this topic?
Is this not national issue?

Who is Hari Prasad? Who are his friends?

The name of the arrested researcher is Hari Krishna Prasad Murli Mohan Waimuru.
He organized the study, is managing director of Net India, (P) Ltd.,
A Hyderabad-based research and development firm.
He is technical coordinator of VeTA (Citizens for Verifiability, Transparency and Accountability in Elections)

In 2009, the Election Commission of India publicly challenged Prasad to demonstrate that EVMs could be tampered with, only to withhold access to the EVMs at the last minute.

Dr. J. Alex Halderman is a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan.
A noted expert on electronic voting security, Professor Halderman demonstrated the first voting machine virus and helped lead California's "top-to-bottom" electronic voting review. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Rop Gonggrijp is a technology activist from Holland who was instrumental in having EVMs banned in the Netherlands. In 1993, Gonggrijp cofounded XS4ALL, the first ISP in the Netherlands to offer Internet service to the general public.

the Election Commission of India has acted as the spokesman of the EVM manufacturers. The ECI has claimed on several occasions that EVMs are 'foolproof', ‘perfect’.

How all this started?

Hari and fellow-researchers put together a proof-of-concept, wherein they demonstrated a hack on some other hardware. The Election Commission of India pointed that this was not on one of the Indian EVMs.

It is reported that, The Election Commission (EC) - invited Mr. Hari Prasad several times but never granted him access to EVM.

After this point, researchers requested that the EC provide them with an actual EVM, it appears the EC refused, or insisted that they tamper with the EVM without actually touching them, a feat of magic which, alas, software developers are unable to pull off.

The researchers had used a genuine EVM in their ‘vulnerability demonstration' on April 28 and the Election Commission of India had then rejected the claim outright.
After video footage of the demonstration showed the serial number of the EVM, authorities found that one of the EVMs in Mumbai collectorate was ‘stolen' and a case registered in MRA Marg station on May 13.

When someone is intelligent and knows that he can do it what he is saying for the benefit of India and Indian citizens what he should do when government is not ready to accept the truth and facts?Thus I think they managed to get the real EVM and demonstrated that Indian EVM is not fool proof and is very easy to hack Indian EVMs in few minutes.

Now the same thing happened in America, what American government did?

Dr Alex Halderman who worked with Hari Prasad in hacking the Indian EVM has also hacked an EVM used in the US elections and he was employed by State of California Secretary of State to expose the vulnerabilities of the EVMs used in California.

This is difference between American democracy and Indian Democracy.

And today in India Hari Prasad has been branded as a thief for showing us reality of EVM.
He has done the job and duty of government.

In America dr. Alex haalderman is a hero and here we are making Hari Prasad a thief.
This is not even a national issue in India.

Why Government is doing this?
To create fear in Public mind that if you try to go against government see what will happen.

The British rulers in India behaved same way with Netaji Bose and Bhagat Singh.

Don’t you think Hari Prasad and his team should be awarded Bharat Ratna?

India deserves a transparent election process, which these machines simply cannot deliver."

No machine is full proof
yes I agree,
but it is the duty of election commission of India as well as government to see, check, verify and see that Indian voting machines are full proof and if someone points out the defects of that system, the defects should be removed from those machines.

Act of arresting a person is a way to show the power and silence him forever

Until now I always believed in the Election commission of India that EVM is safe.

August 2010 –
Chief Election Commissioner Navin B Chawla said that, Describing electronic voting machines being used for polls as 'perfect,' he said there was no need for any 'technological improvement' to be made on them. "Till today, no individual could prove that the EVMs used by the EC can be tampered with," he said.

But Now I do not believe in those machines and feel that in last elections did they count my vote honestly or your vote honestly.
Did we get cheated because of faulty machines?

Thank you Hari Prasad and full team for opening our eyes and showing us that it is easy to hack Indian Electronic voting machines.

Now one will ask
should we ban or stop the use of electronic voting machines?
No they should not be banned.
If we will go to paper vote.
again old Gundaraj and booth capturing will start in India .Because of fear no one will even go to the police as it happens before the eyes of Police, in the presence of police.


The option is check the machines and invite the security professionals and with their help remove the faults which Hari and his team have shown to the world.

Support Hari Prasad
Spread News about his great courage and honesty
Remember he has not sold the ideas to the corrupt politicians but he honestly without fear came into open and showed us the truth about Indian Voting machines or EVMs

More on this topic –

 
Watch the Video Proving India's Electronic Voting Machines are Vulnerable to Fraud By Hari Prasad, Rop Gonggrijp J. Alex Halderman


Remember -
No safety door is full proof then also we have safety doors and we always try to improve them more and more.
As bank lockers are also not safe so banks do not change the lockers but try to improve the security, banks does not keep money in open and boycott the lockers.

Updated on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 –

Pune-based Mukund Lagoo, a civil engineer and a human rights activist was arrested by the Pune police in connection with an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) theft case
After two days of questioning
According to investigations, Lagoo had contacted Hari Prasad and met him before the theft of the EVM.
He has been accused of procuring the machine and carrying it to Hyderabad where he handed it over to main arrested accused Hari Prasad, police said.

Update – Thursday, October 28, 2010
Hari Krishna Prasad Wins award from America and India punished him for honesty.
E-voting researcher Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru has won the prestigious 2010 Pioneer Awards conferred by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco.
The award ceremony will be held at 7:30 pm, November 8, at the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco.
EFF's Pioneer Awards recognize leaders who are extending freedom and innovation on the electronic frontier.
Past honorees include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, security expert Bruce Schneier, and the Mozilla Foundation and its chairman Mitchell Baker



11 comments:

chitra September 03, 2010  

Another fraud exposed .Indians are so brainy , If all this is used for prodctive purpose we will progress fast.

P.N. Subramanian September 03, 2010  

We should collectively pressurize the Government to withdraw the charges against Hari Prasad and strive for improvements in the areas of vulnerability.

Bikram September 03, 2010  

I hope they relaease him after all he has done something goood , showing the incapability of the machines ... our govt's work WEIRD

honesty project democracy September 03, 2010  

Shri hari parsad is real hero and great indian ,INDIA needs a prime minister like SHRI HARI PARSAD...

sm,  September 03, 2010  

chitra,,
thanks.

sm,  September 03, 2010  

P.N. Subramanian,,
thanks.
yes we need to spread awareness and increase pressure.

sm,  September 03, 2010  

Bikramjit,,
thanks.

sm,  September 03, 2010  

honesty project democracy,,
thanks.

mohit,  September 04, 2010  

Shri hari parsad is real hero and great indian

Latha Nair September 04, 2010  

And we call India a true democracy? Shame!!!

sm,  September 04, 2010  

Latha Nair,,
thanks