[LINK] E-voting as secure as an insecure thing

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

E-voting as secure as an insecure thing
No hostages to fortune here
By John Oates
Wednesday 2nd May 2007 12:11 GMT
The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/02/evote_fraud/

Twelve councils are piloting voting over the internet in the local 
elections on Thursday, and the government has accepted there may be 
security problems with the system.

The Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) says it is aware of 
security holes, but still reckons it will be secure enough.

A briefing note from the DCA says: "We will not roll out anything that 
is not at least as secure as traditional channels."

In the wake of allegations that some 20,000 postal votes have 
disappeared from the register in Birmingham after investigations into 
postal vote fraud, this seems a quite brilliant piece of arse-covering.

The problems in Birmingham would have "shamed a banana republic", 
according to one High Court Judge. In some wards the number of postal 
votes has fallen by 80 per cent.

Jason Kitkat, evoting co-ordinator at the Open Rights Group, said: 
"Evoting is far more high risk - it's done at home so you need to secure 
the person's home PC - which is difficult, you need to secure the 
internet connection and secure the servers too. We're taking a wait and 
see approach but anyone with any knowledge of computer science would 
tell you it is less secure."

The 12 councils piloting the technology are:
Bedford Borough Council,
Breckland District Council,
Broxbourne Borough Council,
Dover District Council,
Gateshead Council,
Rushmoor Borough Council,
Sheffield City Council,
Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council,
South Bucks District Council,
Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Warwick District Council,
Sunderland City Council, and
Swindon Borough Council.

If you live, and vote, in any of these wards please let us know how the 
voting goes - email the usual address by clicking on the byline at the 
top of this story,

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au