Stephen Spoonamore is the founder and until recently the CEO of
Cybrinth LLC, an information technology policy and security firm that
serves Fortune 100 companies. At a little noticed press conference in
Columbus, Ohio Thursday, he discussed his investigation of a computer
patch that was applied to Diebold Election Systems voting machines in
Georgia right before that state's November 2002 election.
Spoonamore is one of the most prominent cyber-security experts in the country. He has appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs and ABC's World News Tonight,
and has security clearances from his work with the intelligence
community and other government agencies, as well as the Department of
Defense, and is one of the world’s leading authorities on hacking and
cyber-espionage.
In 1995, Spoonamore received a civilian citation for his work with
the Department of Defense. He was again recognized for his
contributions in 2004 by the Department of Homeland Security.
Spoonamore is also a registered Republican and until recently was
advising the McCain campaign.
Spoonamore received the Diebold patch from a whistleblower close to
the office of Cathy Cox, Georgia’s then-Secretary of State. In
discussions with RAW STORY,
the whistleblower -- who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of
retaliation -- said that he became suspicious of Diebold's actions in
Georgia for two reasons. The first red flag went up when the computer
patch was installed in person by Diebold CEO Bob Urosevich, who flew in
from Texas and applied it in just two counties, DeKalb and Fulton, both
Democratic strongholds. The source states that Cox was not privy to
these changes until after the election and that she became particularly
concerned over the patch being installed in just those two counties.
The whistleblower said another flag went up when it became apparent
that the patch installed by Urosevich had failed to fix a problem with
the computer clock, which employees from Diebold and the Georgia
Secretary of State’s office had been told the patch was designed
specifically to address.
Some critics of electronic voting raised questions about the 2002
Georgia race even at the time. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland,
who was five percentage points ahead of Republican challenger Saxby
Chambliss in polls taken a week before the vote, lost 53% to 46%.
Incumbent Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, who led challenger Sonny
Perdue in the polls by eleven points, lost 51% to 46%. However, because
the Diebold machines used throughout the state provided no paper trail,
it was impossible to ask for a recount in either case.
Concerned by the electoral outcome, the whistleblower approached
Spoonamore because of his qualifications and asked him to examine the
Diebold patch.
