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GCN Home > 08/18/03 issue

Security experts give e-voting a thumbs-down

By Trudy Walsh, GCN Staff

Government, academic and industry officials voiced concerns about electronic voting systems this month at the Usenix security conference in Washington.

David Elliott, assistant director of elections for Washington state, said voting debacles such as the 2000 presidential election and recent reports of security holes in direct-record voting systems from Diebold Election Systems came from “years and years of benign neglect.”

Aviel Rubin, technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said he led a team that examined voting software from Diebold of North Canton, Ohio. He said they found it “far below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts,” citing incorrect use of cryptography, network vulnerabilities and poor software development processes.