Just in time for primary season, the organisers of a number of people discovered that the online portal was rather insecure in a way that made it possible for people’s votes to be changed.
In an interview with Newsarama, SDCC chief communications and strategy officer David Glanzer explained that an internal investigation into what exactly caused the voting portal to randomly allow people to access other people’s accounts led to the conclusion that the problem wasn’t widespread. Still, though, the organisation is taking the security bug seriously.
“As a result of our investigation into the recently reported issues with the Eisner voting website, it appears this was not a malicious attempt but an error in the platform itself,” Glanzer said. “While our examination of the records leads us to believe the problem is small and we have no direct evidence that any votes have been altered, out of an abundance of caution and care we have decided to re-run the vote with a current and secure voting platform.”
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/06/sdcc-halts-eisner-awards-voting-due-to-weird-security-screw-up/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/19/iyckmlhkslgdxkpingbx-300×169.png” title=”SDCC Halts Eisner Awards Voting Due to Weird Security Screw-Up” excerpt=”The ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic forced San Diego Comic-Con to go entirely digital this year. But voting for the annual Eisner Awards was meant to go rather smoothly as people could participate through an online portal put together with SDCC’s organisers. Just as the deadline for voting was seemingly extended,…”]
While it’s good that the Eisners are simply being redone out of an effort to ensure that the votes are tallied fairly and reflect the true feelings of the voting body, it’s worth noting that the previous site lacked even the most basic level of encryption, which is the sort of thing one assumed the Eisner Awards’ organisers would see as an important oversight. Hopefully, the new voting platform (which has yet to be officially launched) will be the first step in an overall safer direction for the Eisners.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/06/here-are-your-2020-eisner-awards-nominees__trashed/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/05/impxcznnst0nhmhfylgt-300×169.png” title=”Here Are Your 2020 Eisner Awards Nominees” excerpt=”Like with most things this year, the 2020 Eisner Awards are a little different. Yes, it’s still a celebration of the best things the comic book industry had to offer in the previous year. Yes, it’s still a very diverse, exciting group of talent. However, this year, due to the…”]