Computer Experts Warn of Sophisticated Dagdag Bawas with Automated Polls

**Computer Experts Warn of Sophisticated Dagdag Bawas with Automated Polls**

Published on April 4, 2009

Rick Bahague, CPU national coordinator, said, “Whether intentional or incidental, a software problem in the AES system can affect the machines to be used in the elections. Software bugs are commonplace and they sometimes affect the same hardware with the same configurations differently.”

Bahague said that the source code of software used by the AES must be open and released to the public for review.

Source codes are instructions understood by machines to do certain functions or tasks.
“However, with the current timeline of Comelec, this will not happen. If source codes are released, no time for review is allotted,” Bahague added.

The group said that during transmission of data from municipal to provincial up to the national canvassing, there are still dangers of manipulation. Outside attackers can do advance cracking techniques to alter data being transmitted, it said.

The CPU said the AES should also provide a voter-verifiable audit trail. A voter-verifiable-audit mechanism allows a voter to check consistency between his or her ballot and the recording made by the AES. In the event that machines fail, there should be a way to recount votes independently from the machines.

The group said it is still possible to create a suitable AES system which the people can trust. The system, the CPU asserted, should be reviewed by a large number of independent security experts with knowledge in computer security and cryptography.

Bahague said, “A suitable AES should accurately capture voter’s intent to actual tally. It should be secured such that ballot secrecy is protected. It should be encrypted and digitally signed so that the ballot data is protected and difficult to tamper with. It should be able to effectively handle a large number of voters. Finally, it should release report faster than the manual elections.”

The CPU, along with other information and communications technologies (ICT) groups, will hold a National ICT Conference on Automated Elections System on April 22 at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. The gathering aims to gather experiences and best practices in technologies relevant to AES. The group also intends to set a baseline that will serve as a monitoring mechanism of the people on AES providers and the Comelec. (Bulatlat.com)

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