The Cold War was a period after the second world war during which the USA and USSR competed to dominate international affairs. This time in history marked unprecedented race for military domination. Both the participating countries stocked up nuclear warheads in the name of national security. Military research was heavily funded during this time, which resulted in computers. ENIAC and Mark I are the examples of early computers built for military calculations. This was justified as better national security, that leads to passivity , deterrence between the competing countries. The risk involved with such justification was never calculated. Information technology also flourished during this period. Today, its benefits are well understood. What are not as well understood are some of the risks associated with this new technology.
A more contemporary example in such risks can be seen with electronic voting systems in India. Electronic voting system was introduced to make toe voting fast and more accurate. But they did not look the risk involved in the introduction of this electronic voting system. The introduction of electronic voting system introduced an unverifiable machine between the voter and the authorities responsible for counting. The machine once made is virtually impossible to verify all the possible basis. The machines are found easy to be tampered with to change the results in favour of someone. It is also important to note that there is no monitoring of the input and a process verification possible , hence there is no possible way in which one can verify the validity of the result. In USA, 2000 presidential elections a punched card systems was adapted in Florida which allegedly affected the outcome of US presidential elections. These machines used have been found to have innumerable errors.
Though there is risk associated with the electronic voting machines, there is a question of responsibility of the engineers and manufacturers in making the machines through which one can 'hack democracy'. It is no different to the lack of responsibility among engineers during the cold war. There was lack of transparency in the design of this machine , as one can not verify the program that has been written into the machine. The manufacturers must be guilty of violating their personal ethics by hiding the program to the public.
The race in research during the cold war lead to several advancements in information and computing technology. But there was a lack of ethics among the engineers who made machine that leads to mass destruction in their cybernetic world, creating a sense of global threat. The Electronic voting machines are no different as elections are the key in the functioning of a healthy democracy.
A more contemporary example in such risks can be seen with electronic voting systems in India. Electronic voting system was introduced to make toe voting fast and more accurate. But they did not look the risk involved in the introduction of this electronic voting system. The introduction of electronic voting system introduced an unverifiable machine between the voter and the authorities responsible for counting. The machine once made is virtually impossible to verify all the possible basis. The machines are found easy to be tampered with to change the results in favour of someone. It is also important to note that there is no monitoring of the input and a process verification possible , hence there is no possible way in which one can verify the validity of the result. In USA, 2000 presidential elections a punched card systems was adapted in Florida which allegedly affected the outcome of US presidential elections. These machines used have been found to have innumerable errors.
Though there is risk associated with the electronic voting machines, there is a question of responsibility of the engineers and manufacturers in making the machines through which one can 'hack democracy'. It is no different to the lack of responsibility among engineers during the cold war. There was lack of transparency in the design of this machine , as one can not verify the program that has been written into the machine. The manufacturers must be guilty of violating their personal ethics by hiding the program to the public.
The race in research during the cold war lead to several advancements in information and computing technology. But there was a lack of ethics among the engineers who made machine that leads to mass destruction in their cybernetic world, creating a sense of global threat. The Electronic voting machines are no different as elections are the key in the functioning of a healthy democracy.
References:
1. The Risks Digest
2. Wikipedia: Electronic voting
-Sujan
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