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(In)Security of Online Voting

(In)Security of Online Voting  

Seminare 2 SWS / 5 ECTS
Veranstalter: Marius Momeu and Fabian Kilger
Zeit und Ort:

Preliminary Meeting: Tuesday, 02 February 2021 / 11 h
Beginn:

The lecture is given in english
The slides are available in english

Description

Although remote online voting (via the Internet) is a topic that has been addressed since the early 2000s, the conflicting security requirements of such a system have hindered its widespread adoption, especially when considered in high-stake national or local elections. This is due to the fact that security researchers have proven on several occasions that state-of-the-art implementations are insecure and do not meet all requirements for a reliable online voting infrastructure. However, contrary to public criticism, a few countries (e.g., Estonia, Switzerland) have implemented online voting systems which officially allow their citizens to vote remotely via the Internet. Still, advances in homomorphic encryption and distributed ledger technologies along with the current need for remote activities put online voting in the spotlight more and more. Therefore, in this seminar we are going to tackle the complex security requirements of online voting systems (such as anonymity, end-to-end verifiability, and coercion resistance), look at technologies that might be able to ensure them (such as homomorphic encryption, distributed ledger technologies, and smart national IDs), and analyze concrete implementations adopted at national level (such as Estonia's and Switzerland's).

Schedule

Objectives

  • Develop scientific writing skills
  • Improve public speaking
  • Enhance security-technical skills

Content

The papers proposed in this seminar tackle the following topics:

  • Homomorphic encryption, mixnets, ciphertexts shuffling
  • Distributed ledger technologies, byzantine fault tolerance, consensus
  • The Estonian voting system
  • The Swiss voting system
  • Apps used in US's midterm elections
  • TEE technologies for guarding online voting clients on the user side

Capacity

  • 9 students