The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency 161
| The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency | |
| author | Dr. Herbert Thompson, Spyros Nomikos |
| pages | 448 |
| publisher | Syngress |
| rating | 7 |
| reviewer | Ben Rothke |
| ISBN | 1931836833 |
| summary | A melodramatic exploration of the dangers of combining unscrupulous electronic voting system makers with a political machine willing to overlook the systems' flaws. |
The book chronicles the final week before security expert Professor Chad Davis is to testify before Congress on the security of a commercial e-voting software product made by a fictitious company, Advice Software, Inc.
Davis' testimony will ultimately determine if the software will be implemented for use during the United States' 2004 presidential election, and therefore create a huge windfall for the company. The company will do anything and everything it can to ensure that Davis provides positive testimony. Advice will stop at nothing to complete their mission; that means they'll engage in multiple murders, kidnapping and a slew of other nefarious activities. All of this is addition to simultaneously attempting to corner the video chip market, and create video drivers that send subliminal messages about which candidate to vote for.
As Albert Einstein said, "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." The plot could have been made much simpler to mimic reality and the current state of insecure e-voting systems. As in real life, the e-voting companies are getting away with providing insecure e-voting systems; under the nose of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and an unsuspecting and apathetic voting public. The idea that an e-voting software company would resort to murder is where the book demonstrates it is a novel.
The reason e-voting companies and their insecure software can run roughshod through the FEC is that voting-system flaws do not have the same immediate tragic consequences that other product failures can. Plane crashes and adverse drug effects spur the FAA and FDA to take drastic actions and often overreact to an event; poorly written and insecure voting software is clearly not as newsworthy as a burning jet.
Combine this with a public that is utterly apathetic to voting in general and the situation is ripe for the situation where e-voting can have a near hypnotic effect on most people involved. Because voter turnout for U.S. presidential elections is quite low (60% of eligible voters cast their ballots in the November 2000 presidential election), and most people are completely unaware of the dangers of insecure voting applications, an under-funded federal agency can be manipulated by the e-voting vendors to roll out insecure voting software.
The international intrigue of the novel takes the reader to the RSA security conference in Amsterdam, where Davis is given a cryptic CD-ROM by Baff Lexicon, a notorious international hacker. Lexicon suggests there is serious problems with the software and will brief Davis at midnight that night at the Amsterdam Hard Rock Cafe on the details. Unfortunately, Lexicon is being trailed by undercover agents from Advice, and is murdered a few hours later by a Yugoslavian hit man that the company seems to have on retainer.
Davis now has the difficult job of unlocking the cryptic information on the CD-ROM on his own. That same CD-ROM is included with the book, and the reader is invited to join Davis in attempting to decrypt the contents of the CD and the conspiracy that Advice Software is attempting to perpetrate; namely the outcome of the 2004 election.
(If you are not interested in buying the book, anyone can download the software without having to buy the book. The software is actually part of a contest and the winner will receive a free pass to the BlackHat 2005 conference.)
A good section of the novel then details how Davis attempts to decipher the secrets that Baff Lexicon was attempting to convey to him. The two authors of The Mezonic Agenda have, respectively, a PhD in applied mathematics and a Master's in chemical engineering, and write in a someone choppy style representative of their technical backgrounds. Occasional errors in grammar and spelling are excused, save for the egregious misspelling of Learjet on page 154.
The story concludes with a moral dilemma that Davis faces: with his wife and daughter kidnapped by the Advice Software hit man, does he provide favorable, yet dishonest testimony about the software and watch his family set free; or tell the truth and watch them die?
The novel itself takes up 240 of the books 370 pages, with the last five parts dedicated to a history of voting, reverse engineering, cryptography, buffer overflows and steganography.
As a standalone novel, the book (while entertaining and enjoyably readable) is somewhat overpriced at $34.95, especially since the enclosed CD-ROM is freely downloadable and the plot is somewhat thin. The non-fiction final section, though, is quite informative and effectively complements the novel.
This novel does a good job of explaining how software can be cracked, and provides the reader with a good overview of security concepts such as buffer overflows, reverse engineering, cryptography, and more. It is hoped that the book will find itself in the hands of members of Congress and the FEC, who truly need to be educated in such fundamental security topics.
As a novel, The Mezonic Agenda will not compete with books from Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum. But because insecure e-voting is one of the greatest threats to democracy today, it is a much needed title.
You can purchase The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
"interactive techno-thriller"? (Score:4, Funny)
In other words, "choose-your-own-adventure". It doesn't sound so impressive without the big words, does it?
Re:"interactive techno-thriller"? (Score:1)
Diebold (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Diebold (Score:3, Interesting)
I certainly did when I read the title. I was very suprised to see that it was about a fictional work.
Re:Diebold (Score:2)
It's close. Most of the work Diebold has done has been fictional.
Re: (Score:2)
Ben Rothke, professional reviewer! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Ben Rothke, professional reviewer! (Score:2, Insightful)
There is absolutely no reason that Slashdot needs to be come a repository for Amazon.com book reviews. Maybe if someone in-house or even an avid Slashdot reader posted the review then it would be fucking relevant.
Keep the Slashvertising off the front page.
Re:Ben Rothke, professional reviewer! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
I also recommend... (Score:5, Informative)
Riiiight (Score:3, Insightful)
So, why do I want to read this? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll wait till I've finished reading all the good books before I start on the second string. I only have a few thousand of those good ones to go.
Time to burn some Karma (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So, why do I want to read this? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's obviously a poor book and shouldn't be purchased. Maybe they should have made that more clear in the title. Hell, let's have a story about ALL the overpriced books with spelling and gammar errors. I'd actually appreciate that as it would be definitly "Stuff that Matters".
Re:ahh, garcia (Score:1, Offtopic)
I'm being a dick and I have 6 foes. Garcia has, what, 60?
Re:ahh, garcia (Score:1)
Thanks for telling me about haxalot [slashdot.org]. I've never seen so many -1's. I laughed my ass off especially because of his latest comment [slashdot.org]. Lol :) But I have to say, garcia usually has a point, and gets knocked for expressing an actual opinion, as compared to haxalot, who just seems to exist for trolling and flaming. Although looking at Haxalot's -1's made me laugh, I think I'd rather cast my lot with garcia. He's cool.
Re:ahh, garcia (Score:1)
Re:ahh, garcia (Score:2)
Re:So, why do I want to read this? (Score:2, Insightful)
In this particular case, the reviewer deems that the material is not worthwhile. Therefore, as you have stated yourself, you have been dissuaded from reading this particular book. Thus, time that could possibly have been wasted on reading material that is of inferior quality
Re:So, why do I want to read this? (Score:1)
Good review, bad book.
Confused (Score:5, Insightful)
When my brain first saw "Mezonic" it couldn't decide if it was some weird reference to the Mesozoic era or something to do with the Masons. What the heck is "Mezonic"?
Re:Confused (Score:3, Informative)
I searched for pages with the word 'Mezonic' that do not contain the word Agenda. Nothing to choose from which probably means it's a made up word (or has some very obscure reference)
Mezonic -agenda [google.com]
Re:Confused (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Confused (Score:3, Funny)
Mezonic
Diebold
Same length, same number of vowels, etc. I wonder if there is some message hidden here (probably just a coincidence).
Re:Confused (Score:2)
Hmm... If you take the letters of each, add up the ASCII values, and subtract, you get 34. 34 is ", which is the only character that could represent the twin towers. Of course we all know what the illuminati had to do with that [theforbidd...wledge.com]. Clearly, the illuminati are behind this. And Diebold. Or something.
So now we know.
Re:Confused (Score:2)
I'd buy it.
Re:Confused (Score:1)
Grammar? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Grammar? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Grammar? (Score:2)
I had to read this about 4 times before I caught the error. This is why I hate proof-reading. Do people who quickly catch grammer errors read slower, or fixate on every word or something? I fixate on about 2 or three places on each line, so I rarely see errors like the one above, or letter transpositions or even most mispellings.
Re:Grammar? (Score:2, Funny)
And they spell out loud as one word.
Re:Grammar? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Grammar? (Score:1)
Oh yeah, it's slashdot - grammer not be understood good.
Re:Grammar? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Suidae wrote: I had to read this about 4 times before I caught the error. Do people who quickly catch grammer errors read slower, or fixate on every word or something?
Can't speak for everybody, but I catch 80% of spelling/grammar errors in written work while reading at normal speed. I read faster than most people, too. You're probably lucky if you don't notice spelling or grammar errors. I've noticed that any place on the Net that allows the general public
Re:Grammar? (Score:2)
This is why I hate proof-reading. Do people who quickly catch grammer errors read slower, or fixate on every word or something?
Who knows, but your Grammer still loves you despite your grammar and misspellings. :)
Shatner alert! (Score:1, Funny)
That being the case, novels are written, to briefly take such men, out of that quiet desperation, even for a short while.
From the looks of things, a lot of these novels could be shortened to novellas if all of those extra commas were eliminated.
Re:Shatner alert! (Score:1)
Re:Shatner alert! (Score:2)
Too close to the bone (Score:5, Insightful)
a) miss the point entirely (in this case that there is more to e-voting than pressing a button);
b) think "Way Off - can't happen here" (even when it has!);
c) ignore the book.
Maybe the way to do it is be more subtle (like Terry Pratchett, who wraps his attacks on society up in metaphor and allegory), or more gung-ho (like Dan Brown)
Re:Too close to the bone (Score:1)
Re:Too close to the bone (Score:1)
I'm so weak... must read humour... even when it criticises monopolies and takes sideswipes at government run organisations...
How about a non-fiction version? (Score:5, Informative)
In "Stealing Elections," John Fund takes the reader on a national tour of voter fraud scandals ranging from rural states like Texas and Mississippi to big cities such as Philadelphia and Milwaukee. He explores dark episodes such as the way "vote brokers" stole a mayoral election in Miami in 1998 by tampering with 4700 absentee ballots. He shows how, in the aftermath of the Motor Voter Law of 1993, Californians used mail-in forms to get absentee ballots for fictitious people and pets, while in St. Louis it was discovered that voter rolls included 13,000 more names than the U.S. Census listed as the total number of adults in the city.
Election officials are trying to reassure voters by turning to computerized voting machines. But Fund shows that with the new technology come even greater concerns. Early in 2004, for instance, the state of Maryland, which has 16,000 new Diebold machines, commissioned a security expert to try to rig a practice election. He and his team broke into the computer at the State Board of Elections, completely changed the outcome of the election, left, and erased their electronic trail--all in under five minutes.
"Stealing Elections" gives us a chilling portrait of our electoral vulnerability--in the 2004 presidential election and on into the future. Writing with urgency and authority, John Fund shows how a lethal combination of bureaucratic bungling and ballot rigging have put our democracy at risk.
A clickable link (Score:1)
Stealing elections [amazon.com]
This is not a novel (Score:5, Funny)
At one time I was a programmer working for the real life equivalant and I was horrified by the apathy the senior managment had for the software's security. All they cared about was having the software ready to sell by the time of the election, not having a fair election.
I spoke up and after rocking the boat to no avail (I even recieved not-so-subtle hints of losing my job). So I wrote a letter to the chairman of the FEC and my state senator and I was granted a hearing by the FEC where I was to be given the chance to present my case.
That was when they had a hitman show up at my house. Appearing like a trenchcoat wearing deamon he calmy walked up to my front stoop and kicked the door in. My doberman pincher tried to fight off the intruder but poor Billy got his head blown off by the Spas-12 shotgun the assasin carried. I was upstairs posting on Slashdot when I heard the noise and ran to the top of my stairs only to see Death empty three rounds of double odd buck into my belly.
I was dead before I hit the floor.
They took my body and dumped it out in Cheasapeake bay with old fashiond cement shoes and there I remain till this day.
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
(psst: That's "double-aught" as in "00", which refers to the size of the BBs [or "shot"] used in the shell. The higher the number, the smaller the shot.)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:1, Offtopic)
When you deal with crap like that on a daily basis your just not gonna develop right and do stuff like say "Double-odd" when the correct term was "Double-Aught" but that's why w
Re:This is not a novel (Score:1)
(psst: it's "grammar"...)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
At that size, that's awfully close to being an artillery piece loaded with grapeshot ;)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
Re:This is not a novel (Score:1)
-Peter
Re:This is not a novel (Score:2)
sabot. (French for "shoe", apparently.)
Dutch, I heard. It's where "Sabotage" comes from - literally "shoe throwing" - refering to an event where protesting workers decided to ruin a factory's machinery during the early days of the industrial revolution by coming to work with traditional dutch wooden shoes (already starting to go out of style by then, so this looked a bit odd), and throwing their hard shoes into the moving parts.
Re:This is not a novel (Score:1)
I wish there wasn't an offtopic mod. Your post was really interesting. Why can't we decide what's on topic?
-Peter
Einstein never said that (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Einstein never said that (Score:2)
"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"
Spoilers? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Spoilers? (Score:1)
Re:Da Vinci code? (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
novels as entertainment (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, some novels, maybe. I've heard it said that there used to be a habit in the 19th and 20th centuries to write novels in order to provide knowledge or moral teachings to the reader.
However, I can't find either of those topics in wikipedia, so maybe not...
hmm ... pun intended? (Score:2, Funny)
Parent=Really Bad Literature Theory (Score:5, Insightful)
Utter rubbish. There are many many novels of extra-ordinary importance that have nothing to do with fantasy or melodrama. The parent is describing a certain middle to low brow sense of literature. People write and read stories for a multitude of reasons, and to say that books missing the aforementioned elements equate with reading the newspaper, just goes to show the parent's reduced sense of human existence and imagination as to what literature can be and do.
Also, the book he describes sounds terrible. I'll wait for the movie to come out and snag a torrent of it in a few years.
RS
Re:Parent=Really Bad Literature Theory (Score:2)
Your supposed high brow sense of literature is the same infestation which has transformed the visual arts into an arena where only the most ambiguous or outrageous efforts qualify as "true" art, which has granted some deep meaning and import to aleatoric music, which has made of the arts in general something which, if appreciated by any
Re:Parent=Really Bad Literature Theory (Score:2)
That's fair enough. I was a bit hasty and inaccurate. However, I think it's important to counter the parent's notion that melodrama and fantasy are requisite features of good literature.
RS
Re:Parent=Really Bad Literature Theory (Score:1)
You're complaining about grammar and syntax? (Score:2)
That was pretty choppy.
"[...]the situation is ripe for the situation where e-voting[...]"
That's pretty choppy too. Hey, are you a computer geek?
Escapism... (Score:1)
I just finished reading the book... (Score:1, Interesting)
Whoa . . . that smells a little like . . . (Score:3, Interesting)
Without doubt Thoreau's comment deserves serious consideration; it has been argued that people watch soap operas and follow favorite sports teams because everyday life lacks a certain sense of narrative; however, to imply that the news is not (significantly) dramatic is quite a commentary on life in general . . .
Regardless of your political leanings, if WMD suspicions, presentations at the UN, North Korean nuclear brinksmanship, war in Iraq, Manipulations of the truth arguably by those for and against war, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, forged documents of a president's military record, and terrorist events in Paris, Madrid, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and NY City are not dramatic enough for the reviewer, then perhaps the reviewer should be checked to see if he still has a pulse. If there was a choice between a "Choose you own Adventure" book and the real world, I would choose the real world.
I can only guess that the reviewer is either looking to sensationalize his piece with a quote and a small piece of flamebait or perhaps he is one of those that cannot appreciate or perhaps understand the complicated drama that unfolds in the news that affects our daily lives.
Pink Floyd (Score:4, Interesting)
And Pink Floyd said "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way."
Well, hmm... I thought I'd something more to say...
Re:Pink Floyd (Score:1)
Har har har! I eat children! (Score:1)
And for th
Re:Har har har! I eat children! (Score:1)
s/\sOmni/ Mega/g
*submits to editor*
Omni-tek is your friend! (Score:1)
Book = Reality (Diebold)... (Score:1, Interesting)
Already read it... (Score:4, Interesting)
As for the "hack along with the story" part, you can just download the zip and hack away. The back story helps a bit, but I had already cracked the thing a few weeks ago.
First book written in l33t speak? (Score:1)
sigh (Score:3, Funny)
This is where participants in international intrigue are meeting these days to exchange secrets: exotic locales like the Hard Rock Cafe?
I miss the Cold War...
Misuse of Thoreau (Score:2)
Thoreau deplored modern society. He was passionate about learning and thought that a man should spend all of his being trying to learn as much as possible about everything. He woul
Ick (Score:2)
What horrible English!
Addendum:
Using expressions such as 'save for' does not necessarily make you a good writer. It _does_ make you look a bit full of yourself, though...
Style and Cadence (Score:1)
The clue (Score:2)
even monkeys do it (Score:1)
Neither a good novel nor a good computer book (Score:1)
Apathetic Public (Score:2)
Thanks in part to relentless media consolidation, the US public is unaware or more apathetic than ever to this important issue.
The best way to counter this? Forget this Rock the Vote nonsense. Like we really need more people unaware of the issues casting random votes. How about a campaign t
darn! (Score:1)
Clancy and Ludlum (Score:2)
Thank God for that. Clancy is an over-the-hill fart who writes books the size, weight and clarity of bricks. Ludlum wrote ridiculous conspiracy-theory novels almost as fat. I regret every minute of my life they've wasted (in moments of weakness, on vactation, I did pick up and read some of these). Like Macdonald's, the aroma is enticing, the anticipation is acute, the after-taste is regret at what you've done to yo
Already HaXoReD (Score:2)
Re:Translation of the Introduction (Score:1)
Re:Free GMail accounts - get em here (Score:1)
Re:Free GMail accounts - get em here (Score:1)