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1. Name: Herbert H. Thompson, Ph.D.  
2. Title: Chief Security Strategist, Security Innvoation, Inc.

3. Voting Machines
Position:
Con to the question "Do electronic voting machines improve the voting process?"
4. Reasoning:

"I wrote a five-line script in Visual Basic that would allow you to go into the central tabulator and change any vote total you wanted, leaving no logs... All software has security vulnerability - this is just particularly bad... There should be much more severe security testing requirements. The key, from my perspective, is you need to raise awareness that these vulnerabilities do exist and can be exploited and you need a way of measuring security." (from an interview with Computerworld magazine, Januray 19, 2006)

5. Credibility
Ranking:
 Experts
Election officials, people with post-graduate degrees in a computer science or a political science, J.D.s, Members of Congress, or elected officials with significant involvement in, or related to, electronic voting machine issues

6. Involvement:
  • Chief Security Strategist, Security Innovation, Inc.
  • Adjunct Professor of Computer Security, Florida Institute of Technology
  • Trains software developers and security testers from major corporations, including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Cisco, Symantec, and SAIC
  • Delivered keynote address at several computer security meetings, including STAR, Quality Week, RSA, Gartner, and COMPSEC
7. Education:
  • Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, Florida Institute of Technology
8. Relevant Affiliations/Honors:
  • 2005 - Most Valuable Professional in Developer Security, Microsoft Corporation

9. Contact Info:
Phone: (978) 694-1008 Fax: (978) 694-1666
E-Mail: hthompson@securityinnovation.com
Web Sitewww.securityinnovation.com

10. Other: Author of 12 books or chapters in books and more than 60 academic or industry publications, including:
  • The Software Vulnerability Guide, H.H. Thompson and S. Chase, 2005
  • How to Break Software Security, H.H. Thompson and J.A. Whittaker, 2003
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