We at Scytl know that the current situation and news coming from Russia and Ukraine is troubling, and that there are concerns about how Russia will react given the position that many countries are taking in response to its military campaign. One of the risks currently being evaluated is the possibility of cyberattacks which could target critical infrastructures and other governmental services. As election systems fall into this category, it is important to understand how these systems are prepared for this risk.
The risk of attacks coming from foreign governments on electoral systems is not new. In fact, it is one of the risks that has been considered in the security design of Scytl’s voting technologies since the beginning. Since the foundation of our company, Scytl has been a pioneer on the introduction of advanced cryptographic mechanisms to protect the privacy, integrity and auditability of election technologies. The strength and transparency of these measures goes far beyond the measures used in other environments, such as in banking or other financial services.
Scytl’s voting system protects the privacy of information using end-to-end encryption techniques, protecting its secrecy even if it becomes accessible by attackers. The integrity of the information is protected using digital signatures and zero-knowledge proofs, which ensure that the information cannot be manipulated if it is accessed by attackers. End-to-end verifiability techniques close the circle of the cryptographic mechanisms implemented to protect the security of electoral system. In this case, the possibility for voters and independent auditors to verify all the votes processed by the voting system allows for the detection and isolation of any attack that could affect any single vote.
All of these measures are implemented on top of other security mechanisms, like hardening, logical sealing, active monitoring, and anti-DDoS filters, to name a few. These mechanisms provide several security layers which ensure deep security, rendering attacks nearly impossible in practice and always detectable. While we often talk about the simplicity and accessibility of our solutions, security is and has always been our backbone and foundation at Scytl. We recognize that the success of an election is predicated on its security, and we take this responsibility seriously as an election technology provider.
Should you have any questions in this regard, please reach out to us at security@scytlcom.wpcomstaging.com.
