Manila Hongkong nationals hostage incident

My condolences to all victims of hostage taking in manila. For the past few days, it is really unfortunate that this happened in the philippines though it happening all over the world as it seems. So many lapses has been unfolded with the blow by blow media coverage. What did we learn from this? Why start pinpointing whose to blame? Why not instead restructure everything to comeout with a better solution next time. We have learned our lesson with this tragedy and its time for all of us work hand in hand for a proper rules and policy incase this occur again.

Why is't that media is kept on asking other personalities that deals with the hostage crisis? Did they even bother to ask themselves whether they are part of the problem? Leave the negotiation to negotiators, they were trained to do that. Are we not watching any movies that deals with this kind of scenario wherein media should know where to stop airing live telecast? Maybe criminals next time will bring small am/fm tuner just to listen where the exact location of the police that surrounds them, no need for television.

Don't even tell the President to be part of the hostage negotiation, your just encouraging criminals if you do. Leave it to the expert negotiators and everyone should cooperate and not be part of the problem as what happened here.

Don't point finger to other as more fingers were pointing towards you.

If we need to trained those guys then we should, if we need to restrain the media from covering the event then i guess its proper but please don't just pretend that media cannot have self-restrain by its own. We all have mistakes but we need to learn from it.

It's really a sad day for Philippines, amids frustration we have to move on and learned from this mistakes.

Hacking PCOS Machine

Was the machine really hackable? Well, I think it is. That's the reason why you found my blog, so you want to hack this machine?

Sad to say but i really have no idea how to do it :) even if i know for sure i will not share it because its not the right thing to do :)

For security reason I'm glad that Smartmatic doesn't show the source code to others, you know why? Those personnel who wants to see the source code have vested interest in it, for sure most of our politician will pay a lot to those who can hack this machine in order for them to win.

Let's just hope that the Comelec secured every aspect of problem that might arise if there is, to ensure an honest election in our country which most filipinos like us are hoping for so long.

See the following security features of the PCOS:

Security Features

Bar Code. The ballot contains a bar code that guarantees the ballot’s authenticity. If the bar code is compromised in any way, the ballot will no longer be read by the PCOS. This will prevent the proliferation of fake ballots that could be used to pad results.

Maximum Number of Ballots. Each PCOS can only count a maximum number of ballots equal to the number of registered voters plus the BEIs. This will prevent ballot stuffing as the PCOS will not be able to count ballots beyond the maximum number.

Precinct Based. Since the PCOS is precinct-based, there will be no transportation of ballots. All the ballots for a given precinct will be counted by the PCOS within the precinct and the results transmitted directly to the central server and boards of canvassers. This will prevent ballot snatching and ballot switching.

Paper Based. The PCOS utilizes a paper ballot, so results can be audited by opening the ballot box and manually counting the ballots. This will be done during the random manual audit to be conducted by the COMELEC immediately after the elections and during electoral protests.

Optical Scan. In addition to counting the marks on the ballots, the PCOS also scans each ballot and stores the image in memory. This provides another layer of auditability in addition to the paper ballots. This will also ensure the ballots are not tampered with after they have been cast.

Encryption. Transmissions of results will be encrypted using 128-bit encryption. This means a total of 2128 possible combinations for the encryption key. A device that could check a billion-billion keys (1018) per second would still require about 1013 years, which is longer than the age of the universe.

Access Codes. Each PCOS operator will be given a unique access code that will allow him/her to operate the PCOS machine. This will prevent unauthorized individuals from operating the PCOS machines and even prevent authorized individuals from operating other PCOS machines.

Audit Log. The PCOS machine and the consolidation and canvassing system both maintain an immutable audit log that tracks all users and actions performed on the system. This will enable the COMELEC to identify any perpetrators who attempt to manipulate the system or results.

Transparency. Results will be made available immediately after they are transmitted from the precinct to the central server. This will allow the public to track the unofficial results in real-time. While the proclamation might take a few days due to the required verification of the boards of canvassers, the unofficial results should be complete within a few hours, which practically eliminates the window for manipulation.

So you think you can hack it? Goodluck !!!