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by Jerry Liao, Philippines

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Can you hack into an offline PC?

Sep 13, 2009 20:17

This is one question that has been going around these past few days--Can you hack into an offline PC? This is in relation to ongoing discussions here in the Philippines concerning the coming 2010 Philippine National elections, particularly regarding the integrity and security of the system. I am sure you are aware that we will be automating the 2010 elections--for the first time.

There's a lot of apprehension, and as early as now, there are some groups who are already preparing for a failure of election scenario. As an IT practitioner, my concern is the security of this system.

The Commission on Election (COMELEC) and Smartmatic (provider of the poll automation application) is assuring the public that the system is secure, that it has provided the necessary security features to prevent any hacking or intrusion, so to speak.

According to election officials, aside from security application and firewalls, the servers (I assume) will not have a keyboard to prevent any inputs; no ports like a USB or FireWall port to prevent illegal copying; no Bluetooth or infrared capabilities. The officials also added that the servers will be offline most of the time and will be online only for a couple of seconds for the transmission of election results.

There are two kinds of hacking: Internal and external. If it's internal, then with all the security features in place such as a lack of keyboard and ports, etc., I can't imagine how one can alter the results of the election unless this person or group of people will burn the computers. We don't call that hacking, we call it destroying the system physically.

Let us now discuss the external hacking. How can you infiltrate a system from a remote site if the system is offline? Can you hack an offline computer? And even if for the sake of discussion the system goes online for a couple of seconds, how much time does a hacker need to alter or erase the election results--considering that security infrastructures are in place?

Can it be done in 5 seconds? 10 seconds? Minutes? Hours? You tell me.

I hate to say this, but there are people here who are claiming to be technology experts, going to the extent of saying that they can hack into the servers just by using their mobile phones since their handsets are equipped with Bluetooth. Huh? Really?

Let me just say that scrutinizing the poll automation system is a good exercise. This will keep COMELEC and Smartmatic on their toes. But to paint a doomsday scenario about the exercise because of technology is uncalled for. Why start the whole process when trust and faith to the system are not in place to begin with?

God bless us all!

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About Jerry Liao

Jerry Liao is an IT consultant in the Philippines who conducts seminars on various tech topics. He is a regular columnist of Manila Bulletin, a member of the academe, a system developer and a system analyst. He is a frequent fixture in press conferences and tech launchings, most of which are posted at infochat.com.ph. He loves to tinker with the latest gadgets and gizmos, but his most cherish possession are his children.