2011 Elections. Credible or Incredible?

Voters Registration:

The Direct Capture devices (Toys) used for the voters registration are nothing but:
Zinox Laptop
Finger print scanner
Webcam
Printer
External HDD
Rechargeable Battery.
Open source software (OpenVR version 1.2 ).

These machines are nothing but standalone devices that capture information that can be easily manipulated.
Basically, data is captured and stored on the provided external hard disks.

Information System Security

The essential information system security principles are:
Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability.

Confidentiality:
This is the principle that objects(data) are not disclosed to unauthorized subjects.

Integrity:
This is the principle that objects(data) retain their veracity, and are only intentionally modified by authorized subjects.

Availability:
This is the principle that authorized subjects are granted timely and uninterrupted access to objects(data).


Let us analyze the information system (OpenVR Version 1.2) used for the exercise based on the above principles.

Confidentiality: The Assistant Registration Officer 1 (A youth corps member) who has access to the external hard disk used for the exercise can easily plug it into another computer and make a clone.

Integrity: Since the stored data is not encrypted at all, it can be manipulated easily.

Avaiability: There is no network in place. This means that data for a particular area can only be accessed when the external hard disk is transported to the authorized subject.


A lot of things are going wrong with the ongoing registration exercise, the most common being lack of power supply to charge the laptop batteries.

The citizens are now restricted to voting only where they are registered because the system lacks a central database. How then will the voting process be monitored in real time?


Due to the inefficiency of the fingerprint scanners, the registration officers have resorted to registering only two or three out of the required ten fingers per person

Do we have to wait for another millennium before we can match the previous US elections?

A lot more was expected from INEC. It is now obvious that funds were misappropriated. Information system experts were not consulted before the toys called direct capture devices were obtained and deployed.

This brings us to the big question:

Will the 2011 elections be credible or incredible?


Mkpanam, Donald E.