Communications of the ACM
Internet Voting Not Ready Yet, but Can Be Made More Secure
A new report found that online voting systems still lack sufficient security to ensure accurate vote counts.
Credit: jus.uio.no
Online voting systems still lack sufficient security to ensure accurate vote counts, although election officials could take steps to improve such systems' security and transparency, according to a new report commissioned by the U.S. Vote Foundation.
The study emphasizes the need for officials considering Internet voting to adopt an end-to-end verifiable Internet voting system (E2E-VIV), which would enable voters to check that the system recorded their votes correctly, it included their votes in the final count, and to double-check the announced electoral outcome.
The report stresses the need for online voting systems to be transparent, secure, and usable. They also must ensure the integrity of election data and protect voters' personal information, as well as guarantee voter privacy and make sure only eligible voters vote, and "resist large-scale coordinated attacks, both on its own infrastructure and on individual voters' computers."
Report co-author Joseph Kiniry notes security researchers are shifting their attitudes about Internet voting from resistance to more acceptance of the need to correct its problems. He speculates an online voting system featuring E2E-VIV could be ready for use in small-scale elections within five years, while a national U.S. implementation will require the resolution of several issues, including large-scale security, cost, and access to computers for low-income voters.
From IDG News Service
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