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March 18, 2008, 02:06 PM ET
E-Voting Vendor Threatens Princeton Computer Scientists With Legal Action
Sequoia Voting Systems, a company that manufactures electronic voting machines, sent an e-mail message last week to two computer scientists at Princeton University, warning them against dissecting Sequoia machines and software. The scientists, Edward W. Felten and Andrew Appel, are well known for exposing security flaws in electronic voting machines and warning the public against trusting them.
The scientists received the message because New Jersey election officials announced plans to send the men Sequoia e-voting machines for analysis. A Sequoia vice president, Edwin Smith, wrote that the plan would violate Sequoia’s contract for use of its machines. “Sequoia has also retained counsel to stop any infringement of our intellectual properties, including any noncompliant analysis,” the message read. Mr. Smith added that the company would “take appropriate steps to protect against any publication of Sequoia software.”
Last year Mr. Appel publicized weaknesses in Sequoia machines. In 2006 Mr. Felten helped to expose vulnerabilities in a Diebold voting machine. And in 2001 he received a threatening letter from the recording industry about a speech he planned to deliver on unscrambling encrypted digital music. —Andrea L. Foster
Categories: Research
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