Hari Prasad, a technocrat who was arrested recently for stealing electronic voting machines and released yesterday, will present a controversial paper on how EVMs used in Indian elections can be tampered with at a conference on computer and communication safety.The conference in Chicago in October will be co-sponsored by IT majors like Google and Microsoft, reports Hindustan Times.
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Hari Prasad, who was arrested last week for stealing electronic voting machines and released on Saturday, will present a controversial paper on how EVMs used in Indian elections can be tampered with at a conference on computer and communication safety. The paper — Security Analysis of India’s
Electronic Voting Machines — is based on the first unauthorised analysis of an Election Commission EVM and co-authored by Alex Halderman of University of Michigan and Rop Gonggrijp, a technology expert instrumental in getting EVMs banned in Holland in 1993.
The conference in Chicago in October will be co-sponsored by IT majors like Google and Microsoft.
The paper shows how EVMs can be tampered with either by insiders or by using portable hardware devices, including mobile phones, to extract and alter vote records stored in the machine. This, the paper claims, can be done either by replacing the chips or inserting an additional one when the machines are being shifted. The replaced chips can escape the security test of election officers.
“It is just a possibility,” Halderman told HT. “Our study does not show that any election has ever been stolen by tampering with EVMs… nobody can reasonably claim, based solely on the results we have presented, that an election now settled should be overturned.”
The first doubts were raised by BJP leader L.K. Advani, who suggested that the country revert to ballot voting. He got support from parties including the CPM, RJD, AIADMK and TDP, who also met election commissioners. The Congress said the EC had the final authority over the mode of voting.
The EC was quick to rebuff the claims in the paper. “The demonstration has not shown any tamperability in the EVM. The EVM cannot be tampered with by any method shown in the demonstration,” K.N. Bhar, a commission secretary, told Hari Prasad, in a letter dated August 7. “It is not possible to replace any equipment in the EVM in the election scenario.”
PV. Indiresan former IIT director and member of both the committees, said the EVMs were examined by independent computer experts and tested for security.
Showing posts with label Hari Prasad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hari Prasad. Show all posts
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
There is an urgent need for public scrutiny of Electronic Voting Machines
Recently, Hari Prasad,managing director of Hyderabad-based Net India Private Limited stole an Electronic Voting Machine to prove that the system is vulnerable.He has done a great service to the nation. These Electronic Voting machines need to be tested for any possible security flaws — that is a standard operating procedure which is carried out by the world’s biggest technical conglomerates to make their systems foolproof, writes Samir Kelekar in Moneylife.
Read the whole article:
An interesting incident regarding Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) has hit the headlines in recent days. Hari Prasad, managing director of Hyderabad-based Net India Private Limited, was arrested for 'stealing' an EVM.
He 'stole' the machine to demonstrate that the EVM can be tampered with. In fact, he - along with a University of Michigan professor and a Dutch security researcher - has even published a research paper on the vulnerability of the EVM.
...
Mr Prasad's claim is that he had approached the Election Commission (EC) with a request to allow him access to the machine, but they refused to do so; at the same time the EC claimed that the EVMs are foolproof and secure. Finding no other way to address an issue which is at the heart of India's democracy, namely free and fair elections, Mr Prasad acquired the machine by other means.
Mr Prasad in my opinion has done a great service to the nation. By showing that the EVMs can be tampered with, he has opened up a dialogue on the vulnerability of the EVMs. The EC on the other hand is blatantly misleading the Indian people saying that these machines are secure. Further, they refused to allow access to these machines to security professionals. If indeed the machines are secure as they claim, why not allow access to security professionals?
In fact, the EC should have hired ethical hackers themselves to find vulnerabilities in their machines.That is the practice followed worldwide by companies whose products can be potentially hacked. The behaviour of the EC reeks of ignorance of current security practices.
...
Our EC has over the years gained a good reputation for conducting the world's largest free and fair elections. But this act nullifies at least some of it.
...
Meanwhile, today's reports indicate that some of the top officials in India have claimed that there is a political conspiracy to discredit India's election process via this hacking attempt. Politicising everything is the nature of India's politicians. It is irrelevant to the discussion whether there is a political angle behind Mr Prasad's act or not. That certainly does not absolve the EC of its lack of attention to security vulnerabilities in the machine.
... ...
Read the article on Miracle Of Democracy.
Read the whole article:
An interesting incident regarding Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) has hit the headlines in recent days. Hari Prasad, managing director of Hyderabad-based Net India Private Limited, was arrested for 'stealing' an EVM.
He 'stole' the machine to demonstrate that the EVM can be tampered with. In fact, he - along with a University of Michigan professor and a Dutch security researcher - has even published a research paper on the vulnerability of the EVM.
...
Mr Prasad's claim is that he had approached the Election Commission (EC) with a request to allow him access to the machine, but they refused to do so; at the same time the EC claimed that the EVMs are foolproof and secure. Finding no other way to address an issue which is at the heart of India's democracy, namely free and fair elections, Mr Prasad acquired the machine by other means.
Mr Prasad in my opinion has done a great service to the nation. By showing that the EVMs can be tampered with, he has opened up a dialogue on the vulnerability of the EVMs. The EC on the other hand is blatantly misleading the Indian people saying that these machines are secure. Further, they refused to allow access to these machines to security professionals. If indeed the machines are secure as they claim, why not allow access to security professionals?
In fact, the EC should have hired ethical hackers themselves to find vulnerabilities in their machines.That is the practice followed worldwide by companies whose products can be potentially hacked. The behaviour of the EC reeks of ignorance of current security practices.
...
Our EC has over the years gained a good reputation for conducting the world's largest free and fair elections. But this act nullifies at least some of it.
...
Meanwhile, today's reports indicate that some of the top officials in India have claimed that there is a political conspiracy to discredit India's election process via this hacking attempt. Politicising everything is the nature of India's politicians. It is irrelevant to the discussion whether there is a political angle behind Mr Prasad's act or not. That certainly does not absolve the EC of its lack of attention to security vulnerabilities in the machine.
... ...
Read the article on Miracle Of Democracy.
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