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| | 12 | <h2><a href='0102640864.html'>Blockchains Are Not Safe For Voting, Concludes NAP Report (nytimes.com)</a></h2> |
| | 13 | <div class='details'>(Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:30PM (BeauHD) |
| | 14 | from the ensuring-the-integrity-of-elections dept.)</div> |
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| | 17 | The National Academies Press has released a 156-page report, called " [1]Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy ," concluding that blockchains are not safe for the U.S. election system. "While the notion of using a blockchain as an immutable ballot box may seem promising, blockchain technology does little to solve the fundamental security issues of elections, and indeed, blockchains introduce additional security vulnerabilities," the report [2]states . "In particular, if malware on a voter's device alters a vote before it ever reaches a blockchain, the immutability of the blockchain fails to provide the desired integrity, and the voter may never know of the alteration."<br/><br/>The report goes on to say that "Blockchains do not provide the anonymity often ascribed to them." It continues: "In the particular context of elections, voters need to be authorized as eligible to vote and as not having cast more than one ballot in the particular election. Blockchains do not offer means for providing the necessary authorization. [...] If a blockchain is used, then cast ballots must be encrypted or otherwise anonymized to prevent coercion and vote-selling." The New York Times summarizes the findings:<br/><br/>> The cautiously worded report [3]calls for conducting all federal, state and local elections on paper ballots by 2020 . Its other top recommendation would require nationwide use of a specific form of routine postelection audit to ensure votes have been accurately counted. The panel did not offer a price tag for its recommended overhaul. New York University's Brennan Center has estimated that replacing aging voting machines over the next few years could cost well over $1 billion. The 156-page report [...] bemoans a rickety system compromised by insecure voting equipment and software whose vulnerabilities were exposed more than a decade ago and which are too often managed by officials with little training in cybersecurity.<br/><br/>><br/><br/>> Among its specific recommendations was a mainstay of election reformers: All elections should use human-readable paper ballots by 2020. Such systems are intended to assure voters that their vote was recorded accurately. They also create a lasting record of "voter intent" that can be used for reliable recounts, which may not be possible in systems that record votes electronically. [...] The panel also calls for all states to adopt a type of post-election audit that employs statistical analysis of ballots prior to results certification. Such "risk-limiting" audits are designed to uncover miscounts and vote tampering. Currently only three states mandate them.<br/><br/><br/><br/>[1] https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25120/securing-the-vote-protecting-american-democracy<br/><br/>[2] https://www.nap.edu/read/25120/chapter/7#103<br/><br/>[3] https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/09/06/technology/ap-us-tec-election-security-reform-report.html |
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