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The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

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Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#391

Post by sbierwagen »

tptacek wrote: post #20
tmpz22 wrote: post #14

This should really be getting more attention, here is an alternative breakdown: https://imgur.com/gallery/ycOC0HX . The jest of it is one of the most important institutions in the United States (the Democratic National Committee) uses a highly nepotistic and incompetent system for managing IT which leads to colossal failures in marketing, canvassing, and security. Not to mention massive PII violations as millions of…

The DNC doesn't run the Iowa Caucuses.

Tell that to Tom Perez https://twitter.com/jeffzeleny/status/1225472426894647296

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#392

Post by marcell »

neonate wrote: post #35
marcell wrote: post #30

My coworker has an alternate theory that frankly makes a lot more sense than “the app broke.” The Iowa caucus is not a paper ballot. People stand in groups in a large multipurpose room and raise their hands for who they vote for. Depending on the viability threshold, people move to new groups and are recounted. The exact rules are complicated and the process is run by unpaid humans. Moreover, in 2020 everyone has sma…

I don't think that's a better theory. The process may be 'bad' but it has been that way, and worked, for a long time. As far as we know, the new ingredient was the app.

FYI new reporting seems to be backing up this theory: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/upshot/iowa-caucuses-erro...

Example of rule confusion: "No new voters are permitted to join the caucus after the first alignment. But in at least 70 precincts, more than 4 percent of the total, there are more tabulated total votes on final alignment than on first alignment."

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#393

Post by bluehat »

tonicb wrote: post #389
bluehat wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is possible to run into more than enough trouble with data without being a data broker.

because you are a non-partisan software? I agree with the 'getting into trouble piece' I think. I don't see how being non-partisan gets you into more trouble or would increase those chances.

Customers will probably be less upset if something leaks internal to a party during a primary than they would be if something leaked to a different party.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#394

Post by monadic2 »

oblib wrote: post #121
monadic2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what the db has to do with this, you need to structure the data somehow to be able to tally and breakdown results. SQL databases can certainly handle multiple magnitudes more transactions per second so it doesn't strike me as prima faciae bad decision making.

It's basically a "KISS" issue. The data being submitted is so simple that using an SQL db adds a layer of unnecessary complexity. So did their decisions for authentication, which appears to be where things got stuck.

Nobody ever got fired for making things too complicated. How would the financier even know?

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#395

Post by tonicb »

bluehat wrote: post #393
tonicb wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because you are a non-partisan software? I agree with the 'getting into trouble piece' I think. I don't see how being non-partisan gets you into more trouble or would increase those chances.

Customers will probably be less upset if something leaks internal to a party during a primary than they would be if something leaked to a different party.

what is the something in this context if not data?

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#396

Post by esrauch »

runawaybottle wrote: post #385
esrauch wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way 60k can pay for multiple people for a few months: your 60k median excludes overheads, insurance, etc. To be honest, I'm not sure if that a few people for a few months is even enough to avoid something like this from happening: this is crazy stress launch in gymnasiums with very high device variety. It probably demands a couple months just of serious dedicated QA and dry runs if you really wanted to avo…

They hired a lot of fresh devs from bootcamps if you checked the company page on LinkedIn. I would not be shocked if they really were that cheap.

Sure, the point isn't that it isn't possible to have an app created for that price, the point is that at that price you can only create an app that leaves a solid risk of exactly what happened.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#397

Post by cyphar »

LargeWu wrote: post #350
cyphar wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Courts found that the North Carolina voter ID laws were designed to be discriminatory[1]. Same in Texas[2]. So it's definitely true in at least two cases that voter ID laws were provably designed for voter suppression. [1]: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/north-c... [2]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/20/texas-voter-...

Not only provably, but explicitly. Voter suppression was the primary intent.

Something being provably true is a higher bar than it being explicitly stated (because an explicit statement isn't enough to prove something to be true). I agree that voter suppression was the primary intent, but the legislation wasn't called "The Illegal Voter Suppression Act 2013".

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#398

Post by bluehat »

tonicb wrote: post #395
bluehat wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Customers will probably be less upset if something leaks internal to a party during a primary than they would be if something leaked to a different party.

what is the something in this context if not data?

you do not have to be a data vendor to have sensitive data on your servers

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#399

Post by sbierwagen »

sbierwagen wrote: post #391
tptacek wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DNC doesn't run the Iowa Caucuses.

Tell that to Tom Perez https://twitter.com/jeffzeleny/status/1225472426894647296

Now it seems the DNC also needs to be told it as well: https://news.yahoo.com/shadow-inc-idp-contract-dnc-documents...
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