Start-up entrepreneurs, tech industry leaders and politicians are at loggerheads with the cyber security sector, which remains adamant that electronic voting is too costly and complex. The debate has erupted in response to the recent election saga, where it has taken the Australian Electoral Commission more than a week to finish counting the votes. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition leader Bill Shorten joined the debate on Sunday, both mentioning the need to find an e-voting solution in their victory and concession speeches, respectively. Senior security analyst at cyber security firm Checkpoint, Raymond Schippers, told The Australian Financial Review it would be too difficult to adequately secure an e-voting system. “The amount of attacks over the internet is insane. In an instant someone could compromise 10,000 computers. And without the voter ever knowing, someone could change their vote and no one would ever be able to confirm it was changed,” he said.
“The system now is imperfect, there’s no independent verification in place that could confirm each vote. But the possibility of infecting thousands of computers or having incorrect information is very real and a huge risk.”
… IBRS cyber security adviser James Turner said e-voting was a “messy problem”, which he was not confident the government was equipped to solve. “I love the idea of Australia being able to export some intellectual property in this space … but we have to create a model that we have a high degree of assurance will work. Anyone can create a system they don’t know how to break,” he said.
“And we don’t have a great track record of delivering IT infrastructure at a national level … Look at the NBN … I’m not confident we have the maturity as an industry to pull this off.”
Full Article: Cyber sector adamant e-voting is too complex | afr.com.