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Utah Count Votes

The following article discusses the dangers of the small, easily concealed USB "flash drives". There are adapter plugs that will allow a USB flash drive to connect to a serial or modem port instantly. On the Diebold voting systems, especially the newest generation TSx, there is both a serial and modem port available to anyone. The new security mitigation for the TSx only requires covering one of the memory card ports with security tape.
From Joseph Holder.
Portable Storage Devices Pose IT Security Risk How much damage can a memory stick or iPod do? Plenty, say users and analysts

News Story by Lucas Mearian

MARCH 27, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. in Memphis recently found itself dealing with a proliferation of user-owned plug-and-play USB port drives that posed a security risk to sensitive patient data.

Lenny Goodman, IS director for desktop management at the health care company, said users found it difficult to copy significant amounts of data to floppy disks, and the company "did not allow CD writers."

So users turned to "the USB flash drive, with enormous capacity and zero installation," Goodman said earlier this month. "Very handy, very risky -- both as a way for data to leave and a way for malware to arrive. We had to do something."

continued at: Computer World