General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEx-MI6 boss warns over electronic voting risk
Sir John Sawers told the BBC that casting a ballot with pencil and paper was "actually much more secure." He warned: "The more things that go online, the more susceptible you are to cyber attacks."
Campaigners for electronic voting said there was "no evidence" it was more open to fraud. Electronic voting allows people to make their choices via a computer or smartphone, instead of people having to go to a polling station.
'Robust systems needed'
Sawers' warning comes after the US government accused Russia of hacking into the emails of leading Democrats and interfering in the recent presidential election. This has increased concerns among security experts as to whether vital national electronic systems are vulnerable to malicious disruption by other countries.
Sawers, head of MI6 from 2009 until 2014, told the BBC Radio 4 documentary The New World: Axis of Power, which examines the state of international tensions between the world's leading powers: "We need to have systems which are robust," he said. "The only trouble is, the younger generation of people expect to be able to do things remotely and through electronic devices."
"Bizarrely the stubby pencil and piece of paper that you put your cross on in the ballot box is actually much more secure than anything which is electronic."
At: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-38408296
Regginald
(3 posts)Those electronic voting machines will be nothing but trouble in the years to come. If it's not real hacking then it will be disruptions due to people insinuating that the machines were tampered with. In my home state we used to have these very easy to use mechanical units. They did away with them because they said repair parts were no longer available and we now have the electronic machines. I just don't trust them.
tenorly
(2,037 posts)As Napoleon put it: 'You make a crime possible, you make it inevitable.'
And these things, with their read-and-write software, were practically designed to be tampered with.
That said, welcome to DU Regginald! It's always good to have well-informed newcomers, and goodness knows we'll need them now more than ever.
Again, welcome!
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)tenorly
(2,037 posts)Merci, monsieur.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)Hand counted and then automatically recounted.
tenorly
(2,037 posts)They're not too fond of paper trails.