January 16, 2007

When I set out to research the voting security series, I didn’t anticipate really finding a solution with merit. I really expected to report back that, as security professionals, we have our work cut out for us to inject ourselves into the process and improve the way these systems are developed, tested and used.

During that journey, I interviewed the team from punchscan, and as you know from the two interviews I conducted with them, have become a believer in this approach. Open-source voting! Step back and think about the implications of a system that allows you to review the code, provides you a receipt of your vote that doesn’t reveal your vote (but can be used to verify) and includes a verification process. For me, this is exciting!

As I have encouraged each of us to learn more and support the efforts of punchscan, I have also donated some time and expertise to their efforts. They are busy, as a team, working to get some larger voting efforts to use their solution. I suspect we will hear more from them in the future.

Recently, they were the subject of a feature in the IEEE spectrum, and I thought you’d be interested in reading more, in case you hadn’t seen this already.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan07/4817

And the ever-so-popular ‘ballot picture’: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan07/4817/nevotef2

There is much to be learned from their processes and developments, as much as we have much to share and contribute.

About the Author Michael Santarcangelo

The founder of Security Catalyst, Michael develops exceptional leaders and powerful communicators with the security mindset for success.

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