[LINK] Internet Voting and Cybersecurity: What Could Go Wrong?

[Tom Worthington]

J. Alex Halderman, University of Michigan, will speak on "Internet 
Voting and Cybersecurity: What Could Go Wrong?" at the Australian 
National University in Canberra, 6pm 23 March 2015: 
http://cecs.anu.edu.au/seminars/more/SID/3635

ABSTRACT

Internet voting has the potential to ease voter participation, reduce 
fraud, and provide a high-tech upgrade to traditional polling methods.

Unfortunately, it also raises some of the most difficult challenges in 
computer security, due to the need to safeguard election servers and 
voters' computers against a variety of powerful attackers while 
simultaneously protecting the secret ballot. How well can election 
technology defend against modern cyber threats?

To find out, colleagues and I performed in-depth security evaluations of 
Internet voting systems used in the U.S. and other countries. In 
Estonia--the world's most significant user of online voting--we found 
staggering gaps in the system design and procedures that leave elections 
vulnerable to attackers such as foreign powers and dishonest election 
officials. Such attackers could change votes, compromise privacy, 
disrupt returns, or cast doubt on the integrity of results. In a 
separate study, we took part in a public trial of an Internet voting 
system introduced by Washington, D.C.

Within 48 hours of the system going live, we had complete control of the 
server and changed all the votes. These findings illustrate the 
practical obstacles to securing Internet voting and carry lessons for 
all countries considering adopting such systems


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/