How to "hack" online polls
Reid Weatherly
Issue date: 10/16/08 Section: Wired
Every Internet poll can be "hacked," and here is how they do it. First, download Firefox. Next, load up whichever poll that is desired to be endlessly voted on. Once someone has initially voted, they need to go to "Tools." Next, click "Clear Private Data" and make sure to have the "Cookies" box checked. Afterwards, click the "Clear Private Data Now" button and then revote. The process can be repeated as many times as one wants to vote.
The reason this is important is because not only is the MATC site vulnerable, but so is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. For instance, JSOnline had a fashion contest about one year ago in which three contestants were disqualified because more people voted than exist in the state of Wisconsin. Currently JSOnline still uses cookies to store information, which is a main cause of the problem.
This process should be considered before believing Internet polls. The real concern comes when a program, which could be easily made, does the whole process over and over automatically. To avoid becoming too technical, someone could potentially setup one computer to repeat this process up to four times simultaneously.
Also, this can be done to make a site look as though it has been seen more often than it really has, which bumps it up to a number one status on a search engine, even though it really isn't that popular.
It is important to know that deleting your cookies will erase all login information for any site used, including Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and MySpace.
The reason this is important is because not only is the MATC site vulnerable, but so is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. For instance, JSOnline had a fashion contest about one year ago in which three contestants were disqualified because more people voted than exist in the state of Wisconsin. Currently JSOnline still uses cookies to store information, which is a main cause of the problem.
This process should be considered before believing Internet polls. The real concern comes when a program, which could be easily made, does the whole process over and over automatically. To avoid becoming too technical, someone could potentially setup one computer to repeat this process up to four times simultaneously.
Also, this can be done to make a site look as though it has been seen more often than it really has, which bumps it up to a number one status on a search engine, even though it really isn't that popular.
It is important to know that deleting your cookies will erase all login information for any site used, including Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and MySpace.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 6
brianna
posted 12/25/08 @ 3:06 PM CST
Question,
So this oviously works but I'm wondering.. will the site be able to tell the votes are coming from the same place??
Thank you.
tenty lamourch
posted 4/11/09 @ 10:47 AM CST
This will not work on every poll
This will not on polls that is registering your IP adress
hamidoukann
posted 10/17/09 @ 12:52 PM CST
If the IP-adress is registered, just restart the internet access point or router to get a new adress. An other solution is to use a proxy server like www. (Continued…)
Ivone
posted 11/19/09 @ 6:03 PM CST
that's cool! I didn't even know I could do that. Thanks Reid!
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