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Both sides of this particular debate seem to be stuck in this silly false dichotomy where you either have insecure electronic voting, or entirely revert to trad

Both sides of this particular debate seem to be stuck in this silly false dichotomy where you either have insecure electronic voting, or entirely revert to traditional paper ballots. We can have sophisticated and safe electronic voting, but we have to introduce it gradually, with transparency and major, sustained investment. We must also do something that doesn't come naturally: Critically review and audit progress to-date, and use this information to conservatively set direction for future effort. The aviation industry's approach to technology is the kind of model that is needed here, not that of startups or big corporate.

TheGRS 9y ago
The suggestions mentioned in this testimony basically recommend doing just that. Paper ballots are used to keep a record of the vote in the case of a system outage or if a manual audit is triggered, but for the most part you would never do it that way. Statistical analysis is used to trigger alerts that there may be fraud happening at a particular polling station.
jstewartmobile 9y ago
Schneier once wrote[0], "The worst enemy of security is complexity", and I'm inclined to agree with him. "Sophisticated and safe" is an almost guaranteed contradiction. [0] https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/1999/11/a_plea_for_simplicit.html https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/1999/11/a_plea_for_...
- FooHentai 9y ago
  Ah, my intent with the use of sophistication was more in the sense of being greatly worked on over time, and adapted based on real-world experience and the complexity of the environment in which it exists. It was not my intent to suggest that the system itself would need to be greatly complex. Perhaps my use of the term was incorrect.
  - jstewartmobile 9y ago
    Don't feel embarrassed. There are professional security people who disagree, at least in practice, with Mr. Schneier, and would make Rube Goldberg envious with the needless complexity of their constructions.

TheGRS 9y ago

The suggestions mentioned in this testimony basically recommend doing just that. Paper ballots are used to keep a record of the vote in the case of a system outage or if a manual audit is triggered, but for the most part you would never do it that way. Statistical analysis is used to trigger alerts that there may be fraud happening at a particular polling station.

jstewartmobile 9y ago

Schneier once wrote[0], "The worst enemy of security is complexity", and I'm inclined to agree with him. "Sophisticated and safe" is an almost guaranteed contradiction. [0] https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/1999/11/a_plea_for_simplicit.html https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/1999/11/a_plea_for_...

FooHentai 9y ago
Ah, my intent with the use of sophistication was more in the sense of being greatly worked on over time, and adapted based on real-world experience and the complexity of the environment in which it exists. It was not my intent to suggest that the system itself would need to be greatly complex. Perhaps my use of the term was incorrect.
- jstewartmobile 9y ago
  Don't feel embarrassed. There are professional security people who disagree, at least in practice, with Mr. Schneier, and would make Rube Goldberg envious with the needless complexity of their constructions.