Category: Uncategorized
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The anomaly of cheap complexity
Why are our computer systems so complex and so insecure? For years I’ve been trying to explain my understanding of this question. Here’s one explanation–which happens to be in the context of voting computers, but it’s a general phenomenon about all our computers: There are many layers between the application software that implements an electoral…
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Magical thinking about Ballot-Marking-Device contingency plans
The Center for Democracy and Technology recently published a report, “No Simple Answers: A Primer on Ballot Marking Device Security”, by William T. Adler. Overall, it’s well-informed, clearly presents the problems as of 2022, and it’s definitely worth reading. After explaining the issues and controversies, the report presents recommendations, most of which make a lot…
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New Study Analyzing Political Advertising on Facebook, Google, and TikTok
By Orestis Papakyriakopoulos, Christelle Tessono, Arvind Narayanan, Mihir Kshirsagar With the 2022 midterm elections in the United States fast approaching, political campaigns are poised to spend heavily to influence prospective voters through digital advertising. Online platforms such as Facebook, Google, and TikTok will play an important role in distributing that content. But our new study…
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A PDF File Is Not Paper, So PDF Ballots Cannot Be Verified
A new paper by Henry Herrington, a computer science undergraduate at Princeton University, demonstrates that a hacked PDF ballot can display one set of votes to the voter, but different votes after it’s emailed – or uploaded – to election officials doing the counting. For overseas voters or voters with disabilities, many states provide “Remote Accessible Vote…
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ES&S Uses Undergraduate Project to Lobby New York Legislature on Risky Voting Machines
The New York State Legislature is considering a bill that would ban all-in-one voting machines. That is, voting machines that can both print votes on a ballot and scan and count votes from a ballot – all in the same paper path. This is an important safeguard because such machines, if they are hacked by…
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Will Web3 Follow in the Footsteps of the AI Hype Cycle?
For many, the global financial crisis of 2008 marked a turning point for trust in established institutions. It is unsurprising that during this same historical time period, Bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency that aspired to operate independent from state manipulation, began gaining traction. Since the birth of Bitcoin, other decentralized technologies have been introduced that enable…
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A Multi-pronged Strategy for Securing Internet Routing
By Henry Birge-Lee, Nick Feamster, Mihir Kshirsagar, Prateek Mittal, Jennifer Rexford The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is conducting an inquiry into how it can help protect against security vulnerabilities in the internet routing infrastructure. A number of large communication companies have weighed in on the approach the FCC should take. CITP’s Tech Policy Clinic convened…
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How the National AI Research Resource can steward the datasets it hosts
Last week I participated on a panel about the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), a proposed computing and data resource for academic AI researchers. The NAIRR’s goal is to subsidize the spiraling costs of many types of AI research that have put them out of reach of most academic groups. My comments on the panel…
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CITP Case Study on Regulating Facial Recognition Technology in Canada
Canada, like many jurisdictions in the United States, is grappling with the growing usage of facial recognition technology in the private and public sectors. This technology is being deployed at a rapid pace in airports, retail stores, social media platforms, and by law enforcement – with little oversight from the government. To help address this…