Bad Software All Around

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1 February 2007 – Here’s a great article by computer science professor Avi Rubin about two examples of bad software or bad security, both due to lazy, sloppy design or system administration. Both incidents happened to him in a 24-hour period: while staying at an NYC hotel he encounters problems with their wireless Internet access, and then discovers he’s logged into their router admin panel. If he’d been dishonest or mischievious he could have created some real problems for the hotel and its guests. Then, at a parking garage payment gate, he and a fellow patron inadvertently crashed the entire system by inserting their credit cards at the same time, resulting in long lines and delays for dozens of other customers.

These incidents are not flukes – we have all encountered digital systems that seem to have been designed by idiots. And as more aspects of our lives are controlled by computers, how can we help but worry? Ruben ponders the implications for a critical function of a sharply divided democracy: those damn electronic voting machines…

“What kind of software design results in this kind of crash? The answer is pretty clear to anyone who has worked with software. While they may have tested the system exhaustively, they probably did not test the possibility of putting credit cards in two different machines at the exact same time. Which brings me back (as usual on this blog) to voting machines. They may be tested and tested and certified and verified and validated. But, if on Election Day something unusual happens, a scenario that was not anticipated, something might go very wrong. And, if there is no tangible, physical record of the votes that were cast on the machine, then votes might be lost in an unrecoverable way.”

My bank keeps badgering me to “go paperless” and forego monthly mailed statements and cancelled checks. But what if there’s a dispute or discrepancy? I’m totally dependent on their electronic records, which, in the fine print, they only promise to keep accessible for 18 months. I have a trust problem…

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