Online voting opens up many doors for your election processes‒but this doesn’t mean it creates a pathway for unauthorized users or hackers. By using encrypted ballots, you can ensure a higher level of security in your online elections and votes. Encryption is a critical part of maintaining election integrity and keeping information private and protected.
When choosing an online elections platform, it’s easy to get swept up in the accessibility of the online ballot design software or increased online ballot accessibility for elderly voters. But the team at ElectionBuddy recognizes that these features aren’t as meaningful if your organization can’t ensure a secure voting process.
In this post, we’ll dive into the role of encryption in online voting, how it works, and what security measures ElectionBuddy takes to ensure a protected elections process.
Encryption is the process of encoding information. For example, encryption will process the information on a digital ballot and convert it from its original form to an alternative form called ciphertext.
This protects the information on the ballot because only authorized parties can decipher the ciphertext back to its original form and access the information. This way, anyone attempting to hack into your election will not be able to make sense of the information submitted.
Many web and mobile platforms use encryption to protect messages, private information, and other critical data. There’s a good chance your bank uses data encryption to protect your data from security breaches‒encryption is often the final line of defense in a platform’s security detail.
Encryption can protect your sensitive data‒such as voter information or ballot information‒by scrambling the original text that requires a decryption key to understand. One of the most basic forms of encryption is swapping each letter in a block of text with one letter that sits in an opposition position in the alphabet. Think replacing ‘a’ with ‘z,’ for example.
However, most organizations use a more complicated method to ensure the security of their users’ data. Encryption typically uses complicated algorithms and digital keys to encrypt the data. The encryption algorithm is called a ‘cipher,’ and an encryption key encodes the data into ciphertext.
The ciphertext cannot be read by anyone who does not have access to the encryption key. Once the ciphertext is delivered to a recipient, the same cipher key is used to decode the ciphertext into its original form.
ElectionBuddy ensures secure and safe elections by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security with 256-bit encryption. SSL is an encryption-based internet security protocol, designed to provide communications security throughout a network. This form of security is common in emails, instant messages, and voice over IP.
256-bit encryption is a type of data or file encryption technique that uses a 256-bit key to encrypt and decrypt the data or files in question. In this case, your online ballots and private voter information and data, if applicable.
256-bit encryption is crowned as one of the most secure encryption methods. For example, it’s very common for virtual private networks (VPNs) and government agencies to use 256-bit encryption.
Transitioning to online voting is an exciting advancement that comes with reasonable questions‒how do you know it’s secure? Who can see the information provided?
With ElectionBuddy, you’ll have the answer to these questions and more with the help of your assigned election expert. You can explore our range of security options, ballot security levels, and more so you and your voters can vote with confidence.
Ready to learn more? Contact us today to explore your options for a safer, more secure online voting process!
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