OK, so it may be mathematically possible to do secure online voting. But that's not really as relevent as it sounds. It doesn't say anything about the integrity of the software platform it has to run on. Most security vulnerabilities aren't in the actual cryptographic algorithms anyway, they are secure enough if implemented properly (if the algorithm is good). I'm thinking of examples like the first X-Box hack (not the Tux JPEG one) and the SSL man-in-the-middle attack, both compromised systems based on mathematically secure algorithms (RC4 for the X-Box?) without breaking the algorithms themselves.
Given the extremely high stakes and potential gains of rigging an election like this, interested parties will most likely have the resources to be able to procure the best minds available to defeat the system the algorithms will have to run on. If this plan is scaled up enough, it basically comes down to trusting the future of a country to the integrity of software platforms, that's not the most brilliant plan i've ever heard (from a pro-democracy point of view anyway).
Slashdot Mirror
OK, so it may be mathematically possible to do secure online voting. But that's not really as relevent as it sounds. It doesn't say anything about the integrity of the software platform it has to run on. Most security vulnerabilities aren't in the actual cryptographic algorithms anyway, they are secure enough if implemented properly (if the algorithm is good). I'm thinking of examples like the first X-Box hack (not the Tux JPEG one) and the SSL man-in-the-middle attack, both compromised systems based on mathematically secure algorithms (RC4 for the X-Box?) without breaking the algorithms themselves.
Given the extremely high stakes and potential gains of rigging an election like this, interested parties will most likely have the resources to be able to procure the best minds available to defeat the system the algorithms will have to run on. If this plan is scaled up enough, it basically comes down to trusting the future of a country to the integrity of software platforms, that's not the most brilliant plan i've ever heard (from a pro-democracy point of view anyway).