Bugs removed from Pinellas vote tabulation system

Two pieces of malicious software detected Thursday have been removed from Pinellas County's voting tabulation system.

The two bugs, known as Flush.G and W32.SillyDC, work in tandem and go from computer to computer redirecting Internet browsers to sites the user hasn't selected, officials said. The worm is carried through removable media like USB drives, is easily detected and, officials say, rather harmless.

Pinellas Deputy Supervisor of Elections Rick Becker said the worm isn't the kind of Trojan horse that would be used to corrupt a computer voting system and was unsure just where it came from. Pinellas IT specialists are doing forensic work to determine the worm's origins, he said.

The system is now clean, Becker said, and none of the infected computers were used in Tuesday's St. Pete Beach referendums.

The secretary of state sent a memo today to elections supervisors across Florida, urging them to take steps, including the use of antivirus software, to protect their voting systems from corruption.