Consumers and Computer Security

Whatever the application, the watchword for new software is security. The underlying fear is that “if vulnerabilities exist in any … system for a long enough time, someone’s going to exploit it.”

The particular case in this article is computer-based voting systems. One solution is to let consumers see the results by leaving a paper trail. This could revert to something just as clumsy as pre-computer days if the paper trail is actually needed. Still, it’s better than requiring the user to blindly trust secret tests. Not so with publicizing the certification process. This is just as likely to create new problems as solve old ones, since we cannot control who sees and analyzes.

My conclusion? Unless and until our increasingly connected world solves the problem of unscrupulous programmers, I vote for the paper trail.

Link to the article:
Machine Politics in the Digital Age