Voter Data Leaks
With voting in Pennsylvania’s presidential primary just a month away, the state was forced to pull the plug on a voter registration Web site Tuesday after it was found to be exposing sensitive data about voters in the state.
I built one of these for Arkansas. The topic of security didn’t come up during the meetings with the Secretary of State, his staff, or the county clerks unless I brought it up.
The problem: These sites are treated as on the periphery rather than core functions. Without understanding or thinking about the potential of platforms, states want to spend little to nothing. Often times this means shoving cumbersome complicated contractor “solutions” into place. One result is lackadaisical security, another is limited functionality behind an unfriendly user interface.
Hijacking the State
Take over the state’s connectivity machinery and do with it what you will:
Is Vietnam the next haven for cybercrime? The country is apparently facing a major Internet security crisis, with some 95% of its PCs infected with viruses and 40% of its stock brokerages vulnerable to attack, according to officials there.
Slow Posting
Working through a muscle relaxant induced haze. Should be back up and running in a few days.
McCain’s Modular Campaign Design
- The 10 different campaign offices will run, in essence, 10 different campaigns, region-specific and constituent-specific, tailorable to fit around McCain’s unique coalition.
- The regional managers would have the authority to hire and fire, to adapt field programs to fit the needs of the states in their region. Unlike regional political directors, they would be part of the senior staff table at the campaign’s Arlington headquarters. Message and media, for the most part, would still be run through Arlington.
- Eventually, the regional campaign managers will oversee campaign-chosen state directors and the Republican National Committee’s regional political directors, slowing assuming the more traditional structure associated with general election campaigns.