[atlarge-discuss] [E-Govt] UK security concerns over e-voting; ICTs in LDCs

[espresso@e-scape.net]

Although I mostly wanted to pass on the link to the British government's evaluation of online voting systems (http://www.edemocracy.gov.uk/library/papers/study.pdf)
some of you might also be interested in getting a larger sample of this useful publication if you don't already know it. Anyway, I've also included the last article on failures in the big-budget attempts to use the ICTs in developing countries, following which are the subscription details and the masthead.

Given that this newsletter is one of the main sources of information on use of the Internet by governments in Britain and elsewhere, it might be of use to our WG studying how to implement a viable system for online voting.

HTH,

Judyth

--Fwd--

* E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN.
The Email Newsletter On Electronic Government,
UK And Worldwide.

* ISSUE 120, FRIDAY 16 AUGUST 2002.

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* CONTENTS.

Section one: News

Security services voice e-voting concerns
- current technology too vulnerable.

US Bill aims to accelerate e-government
- venture capital-style fund mooted.

Cash crisis at housing exchange
- jump in costs jeopardises service.

Nottingham turns to open source email
- replacement for stuttering system.

Teachers' laptop scheme underway
- new computers for 100,000 staff.

Top tips for council sites
- new guidelines published.

Reader survey - your key concerns
- your responses to our questionnaire.

News in brief: Universities drop WorldCom; Local government
without web; Security guidelines; Online visa service.

Section two: Focus - webcasting, Part I.
Lights, camera, action: Dan Jellinek looks at webcasting's potential
for making local government more accessible and accountable.

Section Three: research - Avatars.
Keeping up appearances: 'avatars' began life in online games and
chat-rooms. Now Derek Parkinson finds them poised for a role in e-
government.

Section four: Development – e-governance.
Failure the norm in developing world: new technology and
government rarely combine to produce success stories in developing
countries. Richard Heeks offers some reasons why.

[Contents ends.]



* SECTION ONE: NEWS

* SECURITY SERVICES VOICE E-VOTING CONCERNS.

Security concerns, a lack of standardisation of user equipment, and
insufficient evidence of voter confidence rule out the early
introduction of electronic voting in general elections, according to a
study by UK Government security experts.

The report
(http://www.edemocracy.gov.uk/library/papers/study.pdf), by the
government's technology security agency CESG
(http://www.cesg.gov.uk), found serious security flaws in all widely
used mobile phone, interactive television and home computer
technologies. Collecting votes on web sites is risky because the route
that data takes over the internet is unpredictable, and can be
intercepted or modified in transit, it says. Even 'Secure Sockets
Layer' encryption - used to protect personal information sent to most
e-commerce sites - could be undermined by common computer
viruses.

The research also highlighted reliability problems with mobile phone
text-messaging technology (SMS). "As SMS is inherently a 'best
effort' delivery medium with no guarantee of successful delivery,
this effectively rules out such internet-based gateways, as a response
will be required to satisfy the voter that their vote has been received.
In fact, this response may have to be sent multiple times to increase
the likelihood of at least one getting through," the CESG said.
Unreliability would also make attempts at multiple voting difficult to
track and penalize.

According to CESG, secure voting on digital television would be
difficult because of the diversity of technology available. "It may be
possible to modify set-top box software to add an electronic voting
application to facilitate client processing. Whether this can be done
and rolled-out securely enough would be a matter for investigation,
and whether it would be feasible to create enough versions to run on
every possible type of set-top box, on time, and for a reasonable
budget, is also doubtful," it said.

More generally, CESG warned that building voter confidence may
take an extended period, but could be quickly demolished by a small
number of security breaches.


[[snip]]



* SECTION FOUR: DEVELOPMENT
- E-GOVERNANCE

FAILURE THE NORM IN DEVELOPING WORLD.
by Richard Heeks  richard.heeks@man.ac.uk

Success stories are a rarity among e-governance initiatives in
developing countries.

This is partly because surveys are rare. Even aid donors, who should
be committed to monitoring and evaluation of their work, rarely
produce reports. But there are two more prosaic reasons for this lack
of good news: most developing countries have only undertaken a
limited number of e-governance initiatives; and, most e-governance
initiatives currently fail.

Two main types of e-governance failure can be identified, total and
partial failure. In total failure an initiative is never implemented, or a
new system is implemented but immediately abandoned. In a partial
failure some goals are reached while other important goals remain
unattained, or there is some significant undesirable outcome.

An example of total failure is India's Indira Gandhi Conservation
Monitoring Centre, which was intended to be a national information
provider based on a set of core environmental information systems.
Despite more than a year of planning, analysis and design work,
these IT systems never became operational, and the whole initiative
collapsed shortly afterwards.

An example of partial failure, on the other hand, is the tax
computerisation project of Thailand's Revenue Department, which
set out seven areas of taxation that were to be computerised. At the
end of the project, only two areas had been partly computerised, and
five others were not operational.

In the surveys of IT in development which do exist, failures of both
kinds are common themes. South Africa's use of IT in health reform
is viewed as a widespread partial failure, while failure has been
found to be the norm in Thailand and China's public sector IT
projects. Meanwhile, almost all World Bank-funded public sector IT
projects have been found to be partial failures.

The partial IT failures of the World Bank, like those elsewhere, often
resulted from a lack of sustainability where an initiative succeeds at
first but then fails after a year or so. An example of this is the
creation of a set of touch-screen kiosks for remote rural communities
in South Africa's North-West Province. These were initially well-
received. However, the kiosks' lack of up-to-date, local content and
interactivity led to their disuse, and they were removed less than a
year later.

The lack of sustainability in the past puts into question the long term
success of projects currently seen as successful. This is not to say,
however, that they will all be failures. Among projects which appear
set for success are the Egyptian Information and Decision Support
Center's birth, death, marriage and divorce records; the Online
Procedures Enhancement scheme (OPEN -
http://fastlink.headstar.com/open), an anti-corruption portal created
by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in South Korea; and South
Africa's Independent Electoral Commission's use of satellite and
computer technology to create an electoral roll in time for elections
in 1999.

As well as recognising successes, it is important to acknowledge that
developing countries are not alone in suffering high levels of failure
with e-governance initiatives. However, they do face a particular set
of constraints which arise from a lack of readiness for the
implementation of e-governance.

Developing country governments should ask themselves six
questions when assessing their preparedness for an e-governance
project: Is the data systems infrastructure ready? Is the legal
infrastructure ready? Is the institutional infrastructure ready? Is the
human infrastructure ready? Is the technological infrastructure
ready? Is the leadership and strategic thinking ready?

It is the last of these that is probably the most critical to creating a
new success story, whoever you are.

NOTE: Richard Heeks, the author of the paper from which this
article is an edited extract (http://idpm.man.ac.uk/idpm/igov11.htm),
is creating an internet-based information exchange for e-government
practitioners from developing countries to share best practice. To
join send an email containing your name and postal address at work
to:
richard.heeks@man.ac.uk

[Section four ends.]


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ISSN 1476-6310

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##########################################################
Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
##########################################################
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once 
they have exhausted all other alternatives." (Abba Eban)
##########################################################
See the UNESCO OBSERVATORY ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY!
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/observatory  



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