Kenyan Elections Authority to Involve Hackers in Testing its Electronic Systems

If you really think that you are a hacker worth his salt, you need to be ready because Kenya’s election authority will be looking to involve you in a systems penetration test in the not so distant future.

According to the CEO of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), James Oswago, the commission will be looking to involve hackers in testing its result transmitting system in November. The involvement of hackers is a move meant to assure all candidates of the systems capabilities and security.

It comes after some of the top presidential contenders complained that they have not had access to the system to test its security and the failure of IEBC to assure the contenders that they will be allowed to assign specialized agents to monitor the system during the the general election.

The commission is also looking to replicate the experience of India which offered even upto Ksh 1.5 Million to hackers who would have penetrated the Voter Verifiable Paper Trial (VVPT) machine. The VVPT is an electronic voting machine (EVM) that prints out paper as proof of data transmitted through it.

There will no electronic voting but the provisional results of the election will be transmitted electronically. The commission has also promised to allow voters to authenticate their registration electronically. Voters will be verified through a biometric system before the elections.