Keys For Diebold Machines

This just gets more unbelievable. The keys that open Diebold voting machines and hotel minibars are one and the same.

On Wednesday we did a live demo for our Princeton Computer Science colleagues of the vote-stealing software described in our paper and video. Afterward, Chris Tengi, a technical staff member, asked to look at the key that came with the voting machine. He noticed an alphanumeric code printed on the key, and remarked that he had a key at home with the same code on it. The next day he brought in his key and sure enough it opened the voting machine.

The key is also used for office furniture, jukeboxes, and electronic equipment. I wouldn't be surprised if thiefs have bought the key on Ebay. The cost for one key is $7.95 at Office Environments.