IP: not quite so, was Re: Perspective on election processes Risks Digest 21.13

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 10:19:54 -0800
>From: Ed Gerck <egerck@safevote.com
>
>
>Dave Farber wrote:
>
> > >Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 9:59:37 PST
> > >From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann@csl.sri.com>
> > >Subject: Perspective on election processes
> > >
> > ....
> > >  * Voting by the Internet, even if only from well established polling
> > >    places, is and will remain extraordinarily risky because of the 
> inherent
> > >    untrustworthiness of computer systems attached to the Internet and
> > >    indeed the networking itself.  It should not be recommended for use
> > >    in the foreseeable future.
> > >
>
>The concern is justified but Peter ignores that there is a hacker-proof way
>to make an Internet-connected computer as secure as a non-connected one.
>The method was made public in its details and fire tested in a week-long
>24-hour-a-day open attack test -- as reported in USA Today, Wired, and
>in http://www.safevote.com/tech.htm
>
>As long as the endpoints fully control the  cryptographic key agreement and
>node addressing schemes used, the ?Internet as a transfer medium? is extremely
>reliable in accurately delivering opaque blobs of encrypted and certified 
>data,
>while Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks can be forestalled by using the stealth,
>moving target technology described in http://www.safevote.com/tech.htm.
>
>Indeed, the Internet can support reliable and secure transactions, and does so
>regularly, as long as all endpoints of the transactions are under the 
>control of a
>single authority ­ even if multiple keys are used. People are generally 
>unaware
>of this quality because it is not the ?standard mode of operation? employed by
>the public in web browsing or sending an email.
>
>Further features of the security design are described in The Bell of 
>November at
>www.thebell.net, with design principles and limits in the website at
>http://www.safevote.com/aboutus.htm , is exemplified in the demo at the 
>website
>at  http://www.safevote.com/demo2000/index.html , besides clarifications at
>http://www.safevote.com/contracosta/index.html#Report  and
>http://www.safevote.com/tech.htm
>
>Cheers,
>
>Ed Gerck



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