[LINK] How Many Eyes [Was Re: Brazillians ...]

[Roger Clarke]

Disputing only one specific point ...

>>>  IT secretary Giuseppe Janino says the secret to the success of 
>>>the  process is transparency.
>>>  "We make every line of code available to all political parties 
>>>for  auditing," he says. "In the last week, the program is 
>>>finalised in  front of them and digital signatures issued for each 
>>>box's memory  card. On start-up the box will automatically freeze 
>>>if the digital  signature and hash records don't match."

At 11:05 +1100 18/11/06, rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au wrote:
>What did I say about delegating democracy to those who can read 
>code? Here we have the problem spun as a positive. This is *not* 
>transparency, because it's transparency restricted to a sub-group of 
>people (PS: a reason that the political class may like and/or 
>endorse e-voting is indicated in this very paragraph. "All political 
>parties for auditing" - a concentration of part of the process 
>upwards to the parties._).

Democracy seldom involves equality of action, and is more about 
equality of opportunity.  Success of a democratic process requires a 
*critical mass* of eyes, not a universality of them.

As a self-congratulatory and self-deprecatory example, I know a bit 
about digital signatures and PKI (enough to write tutorials a decade 
ago, publish refereed articles 5-10 years ago, be invited to address 
an NSF event in Washington in 2001, and earn a fair bit of money in 
the consultancy market, here and in a couple of places overseas).

And I'm utterly and completely dependent on the competence (and 
jealousies) of genuine cryptographers in regard to the validity of 
assertions about public key crypto generally, and various algorithms 
and key-lengths in particular.

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW