Category Archives: voting

Wombat Voting: Open Audit Elections in Israel

Posted on June 1, 2011 by ben

My friend Alon Rosen is leading an effort with colleagues Amon Ta-Shma, Ben Riva, and Yoni Ben-Nun in Israel to implement and deploy in-person open-audit voting. The project is called Wombat Voting. It combines a number of existing cryptographic techniques … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, voting | 3 Comments

Online Voting is Terrifying and Inevitable

Posted on May 25, 2011 by ben

Voting online for public office is a terrifying proposition to most security experts. The paths to subversion or failure are many: the server could get overwhelmed by attackers, preventing voting altogether the server could get hacked and the votes changed … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting, web | 4 Comments

everything I know about voting I learned from American Idol

Posted on March 2, 2011 by ben

Tonight, American Idol began online voting. Yes, I’m a fan of American Idol, but don’t let that fool you: I’m still a bitchin’ cryptographer. I suspect that American Idol online voting will give rise to many questions such as “wow, … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, voting | 4 Comments

Crisis in the Java Community… could they have used a secret-ballot election?

Posted on December 9, 2010 by ben

There is a bit of a crisis in the Java community: the Apache Foundation just resigned its seat on the Java Executive Committee, as did two individual members, Doug Lea and Tim Peierls. From what I understand, the central issue … Continue reading →

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faulty logic, even for good, is still faulty

Posted on October 10, 2010 by ben

So Alex Halderman and team hacked the DC Internet Voting pilot. The voting system they attacked was not particularly well secured, and the type of attack used is a fairly simple web input corruption attack with little novelty. This hack, … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | 4 Comments

Fort Knox vs. the Barking Dog

Posted on October 6, 2010 by ben

Over the last few days, Alex Halderman and his team at the University of Michigan hacked an Internet Voting System being field-tested by the DC Board of Elections. First, we need to commend both Alex’s team for their dutiful analysis … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | 2 Comments

Usenix Security, voting and health security

Posted on August 9, 2010 by ben

I’m at Usenix Security 2010 in DC, starting with the EVT/WOTE Workshop on voting where I’ll be presenting an update on Helios, then the HealthSec workshop where I’ll be on a panel discussing my paper with Zak Kohane and Ken … Continue reading →

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What the Oscars teach us about voting

Posted on February 27, 2010 by ben

This year, the voting process for the Oscars has changed. Rather than indicating a single choice as they have done since 1946, members of the Academy will provide a first choice, a second choice, etc.. potentially ranking all 10 nominees … Continue reading →

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For deniability, faking data even the owner can’t prove is fake

Posted on February 26, 2010 by ben

I was speaking with a colleague yesterday about Loopt, the location-based social network, the rise of location-based services and the incredible privacy challenges they present. I heard the Loopt folks give a talk a few months ago, and I was … Continue reading →

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Takoma Park 2009: the conclusion

Posted on December 23, 2009 by ben

Well, it’s been a few weeks of craziness at home and catching up on other work, but I’ve finally wrapped up the Takoma Park 2009 audit. The final step: letting you, dear reader, run the audit all on your own. … Continue reading →

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