The president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Minister Edson Fachin, received today (30) the final report from the commission of entities that participated in the public security test (TPS) of the electronic system for this year’s elections. The test is a standard procedure performed since 2009.
According to the report, the electronic voting system remains “integr and secure”, despite the “findings” identified during the tests.
The document is signed by the ten members of the commission, composed of representatives of the Federal Police, the Federal Public Ministry, the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), the National Congress and the Federal Audit Court (TCU), as well as members of the academic and scientific areas.
“It is observed, throughout the TPS events, held from 2009 to the present, that the results presented demonstrate the maturity of the electoral systems. However, it is noted, in some tests, that the advances obtained by the researchers also demonstrate the relevance of the subsystems and components that, in isolation, still present room for improvement in the questions related to the quality of the project and the dependence of external security mechanisms”, says part of the report.
In the security test, the TSE, the body responsible for the elections, invited investigators from several institutions to carry out 29 plans to attack the electronic voting equipment.
Attempts to circumvent the security system took place through the availability of the source code, a procedure in which the court hands over to the participants the key for programming the machines that make up the urn, such as the components that make the reception and transmission and verification of the wishes.
In November last year, of the 29 attacks, five were successful, but none of them managed to attack the software responsible for the operation of the ballot box and the application for storing the names of voters and candidates.
After the first phase, the TSE gathered its technicians to seek solutions to the problems found by the investigators and present them earlier this month, in the second phase of the TPS.
According to the court, the investigators repeated the attacks made, but were unsuccessful.because all five vulnerabilities have been fixed.
