[pp.int.general] Securing Digital Democracy

[Francisco George]

This is a free course

https://www.coursera.org/course/digitaldemocracy

Securing Digital Democracy

J. Alex Halderman

In this course, you'll learn what every citizen should know about the
security risks--and future potential — of electronic voting and Internet
voting.

About the Course

Computer technology has transformed how we participate in democracy. The
way we cast our votes, the way our votes are counted, and the way we choose
who will lead are increasingly controlled by invisible computer software.
Most U.S. states have adopted electronic voting, and countries around the
world are starting to collect votes over the Internet. However,
computerized voting raises startling security risks that are only beginning
to be understood outside the research lab, from voting machine viruses that
can silently change votes to the possibility that hackers in foreign
countries could steal an election.

This course will provide the technical background and public policy
foundation that 21st century citizens need to understand the electronic
voting debate. You'll learn how electronic voting and Internet voting
technologies work, why they're being introduced, and what problems they aim
to solve. You'll also learn about the computer- and Internet-security risks
these systems face and the serious vulnerabilities that recent research has
demonstrated. We'll cover widely used safeguards, checks, and balances —
and why they are often inadequate. Finally, we'll see how computer
technology has the potential to improve election security, if it's applied
intelligently. Along the way, you'll hear stories from the lab and from the
trenches on a journey that leads from Mumbai jail cells to the halls of
Washington, D.C. You'll come away from this course understanding why you
can be confident your own vote will count — or why you should reasonably be
skeptical.
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