A practical multi-party computation algorithm for a secure distributed online voting system
This addresses security and trust issues in online voting systems, offering a practical solution for elections, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing MPC concepts.
The authors tackled the problem of secure online voting by proposing a distributed architecture using a new Multi-party Computation algorithm, which reduces vulnerability to attacks and eliminates the need for trusted authorities, lowering overall election risks.
We present an online voting architecture based on partitioning the election in small clusters of voters and using a new Multi-party Computation algorithm for obtaining voting results from the clusters. This new algorithm has some practical advantages over other previously known algorithms and isn't bound to any specific cryptographic concept; so it can be adapted to future cryptographic exigencies. Compared with other online voting technologies, we see that this new architecture is less vulnerable to hacker attacks and attacks from dishonest authorities, given that no sensitive information is stored in any public server and there is no need for any trustee to safeguard the legality of the election process. Even in case of an attack succeeding, the risks associated with the overall election are far lower than with any other voting system. This architecture can also be combined with any other voting system, inheriting advantages from both systems.