Finally a response that indicates that all we had was an implementation issue, this explains why you need clear division of duties when dealing with any size of system.

If they had an experienced DBA the issues would have been resolved promptly and the election would have been a trump for IT in Kenya but because one person tried to do everything we now all as an industry have egg on our faces.

Regards

 
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

From: Erik Hersman <erik@zungu.com>
To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Saturday, 9 March 2013, 12:55
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Was the IEBC hacked? An insider's view

+1 on the fact that this was an add-on system, meant to provide transparency, but was never intended to be the official source for the tally of elections.  

We finally have an idea of the system setup and what went wrong: http://iebctechkenya.tumblr.com/post/44928868808/a-clear-definition-of-the-iebc-tech-failure

On Mar 9, 2013, at 12:21 PM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com> wrote:

+1

I will repeat what Adam has noted:

It sounds like he did the best job possible but a penetration test is just one of many layers needed for security so this really does appear to be a textbook example of a failed implementation of an important technology system.

Pentest and securing of a system does NOT in any way stop someone with access privileges from compromising the system in their own special way:)



On 9 March 2013 11:58, Adam Nelson <adam@varud.com> wrote:
It doesn't really matter in terms of the election itself because the system was abandoned and was never intended to be the definitive basis of results.  

However, saying that attacks were stopped in real time is already bad news.  The fact that he was changing passwords and taking the "SQL server" off the network (I presume he means on some sort of public or unsafe network) just days before the election is pretty bad.  The system could have been hijacked before he set up the IDS and did that work.  It sounds like he did the best job possible but a penetration test is just one of many layers needed for security so this really does appear to be a textbook example of a failed implementation of an important technology system.

However, many best practices and lessons could come out of this.  It almost seems like a book-length project.

-Adam

On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 11:47 AM, Rebecca Wanjiku <rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com> wrote:
Just in case you were wondering whether it was hacked, the person who did the pen test and monitored the network says no.

Read the views......

http://www.wanjiku.co.ke/2013/03/was-the-iebc-network-compromise-an-insiders-view/


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Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
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