[E-voting] Meeting with the Minister/Dept

[Colm MacCarthaigh]

On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 08:34:50PM +0000, Catherine Ansbro wrote:
> Also, someplace in the basic presentation should state the need for a 
> mandatory audit of a significant percentage of the votes at every election 
> as necessary to deter fraud.  (A "properly" hacked election would not 
> necessarily be obvious.)  Maybe even of all the votes at each 
> election.  There needs to be a strong deterrent to any would-be tamperers.

Indeed, we also need to get accross the differences in perception about
the feasability of tampering. Computer Scientists, as evidenced by
Appendix 2 of the Commissions report, know how trivial such attacks
really can be, while non-experts seem to regard them as highly
difficult.

> I hope you folks are keeping on top of the recent events in the USA.  I 
> finally stopped posting about it here because of the lack of response.  But 
> the range of evidence of fraud is mounting and is leading to preparations 
> for a wide range of legal actions.  (And the statistical work that some 
> tried to attack subsequently held their own.)  Wake up ICTE!  The USA 
> events are relevant for us here.

Lack of response is not the same as a lack of interest :) I for one
watch th developments in the US in sheer awe.

> Also, do not underplay the opportunities for "insider jobs" when
> dealing with electronic voting, and the great vulnerability of the
> counting machines.  And the difficulty in providing genuinely secure
> storage, updating, repair and handling/transmission of all the
> components in an e-voting system.  The procedural oversight would be
> onerous (and impractical and expensive)--and could still be easily
> compromised by only one person.
> 
> That press release was really shocking, wasn't it.  It shows the
> government's position and we can take nothing for granted.

Absolutely, I think we can only hope that the fact that DoE had access
to the report months ago and that the Minister was in South America at
the time mean the Minister's own opinion might not be so appallingly
uninformed and cynical.

-- 
Colm MacCárthaigh                        Public Key: colm+pgp at stdlib.net