AAAS: “voting on the blockchain does not solve security problems”

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Warned That Blockchain Voting Doesn't SolveInternet voting security issues and should not be introduced in the United States.

Center for Scientific Evidence on PublicAAAS sent an open letter to state governors, secretaries and directors of elections to express concerns about the security of voting via the Internet or mobile applications, including blockchain voting.

In an AAAS letter signed by expertsand organizations in the field of cybersecurity, reflected the research of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, as well as other organizations.

Researchers point to the possibility of manipulating ballots, the possibility of malware invasion and DDoS attacks, as well as privacy issues and other vulnerabilities.

According to the letter, in an online vote, inincluding voting by e-mail, fax and via mobile applications, there is no paper copy confirmed by the voter, which makes it impossible to conduct a reliable verification of the results.

Steve Newell (Steve M.Newell, project director of the AAAS Center for Evidence on Public Affairs, points to a report produced by the National Science Foundation about two decades ago. Even then, experts raised the issue of the security of remote voting.

“They concluded that now it’s nota viable product and it will not become one in the foreseeable future. In addition, two years ago, the National Academies issued a large report on the security of such elections, and their conclusions were basically the same, ”he said.

New blockchain-based tools seem to bealso do not meet the requirements of experts. According to the letter, the use of blockchain does not solve the fundamental problems of Internet voting, and at the same time opens up more opportunities for attack. Such a system raises questions about the methods of storage, decryption and transmission of information for long-term storage on paper.

“There are people who believe that voting onblockchain will solve the problem of the security of online voting or online voting, but this is not so. Blockchain is a way of storing data, but it does not solve the main security problems of Internet voting, ”said Barbara Simons, a member of the Association of Computer Engineering and the American Association for the Development of Science.

The letter mentions a mobile application forVoatz vote citing a Trail of Bits audit confirming vulnerabilities previously reported by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers. However, Voatz's developers said that the MIT researchers were using an older version of the app, which had already been updated 27 times when the review results were published, and that this version had never been used in an election.

Experts note that the application maythere are still undetected vulnerabilities, and also "there is no transparency necessary for trusting the electoral system." The letter mentions the possibility of manipulating ballots and disclosing personal information of voters, which could expose them to the risk of identity theft.

In addition, in the case of voters voting,serving in the military overseas, vulnerabilities in the application "could potentially provide adversaries with intelligence, putting military personnel and national security at risk." Experts are calling for the “thoughtful implementation of alternative voting methods,” such as mail-in voting and early voting.

“We must not sacrifice security for the sake ofconvenience, because there are many organizations and people who would like to compromise our choices. And we must make this task as difficult for them as possible. Switching to online voting will allow anyone from anywhere in the world to compromise our elections, ”said Simons.

The letter says internet voting is notIt should be used until the ability to verify, security and confidentiality of newsletters transmitted over the Internet is guaranteed. According to experts, at present “none of the known technologies” can provide this.

Newell noted that to people who seethe theoretical advantages of online voting, it is worth knowing that it is not supported by evidence or science, and that its insecurity is an unequivocal and widespread opinion. According to Newell, various expert groups, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Heritage Foundation, strongly oppose online voting.

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