Can you make voting safer?

Kaspersky Lab sponsors a competition hosted by The Economist for college students in the UK and USA to make voting more secure.

Over the past few years, the power of voting has been evident across television screens and social networks around the world. Similarly, we have also seen technology continue to evolve and transform industries.

However, both voting and new technologies have demonstrated their fair share of vulnerabilities to bad guys, and each presents unique challenges. So, why do we bring this up?

Glad you asked. Kaspersky Lab is sponsoring a competition hosted by The Economist for select universities in the United Kingdom and United States. Teams will combine voting and cybersecurity to make the former more secure in the future.

The challenge

Can technology play a greater positive role in democracy and the way people make important decisions about the future of their countries? With digital voting, a new wave of challenges rolls in: from guaranteeing the anonymity of voters to the prevention of fraud, all the while ensuring the security of the voting system itself. One small vulnerability or oversight could very well change the course of a nation’s history.

Sound like a challenge? We think so.

To see how we will select a winner and the full criteria for submissions, please visit the contest microsite.

We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Tips

Cracked in under a minute: (nearly) every other password

We’ve revisited our study on the crackability of real-world passwords leaked on the dark web — originally conducted two years ago. The findings are sobering: nearly every other password can be cracked in under a minute, and three out of five take less than an hour. How can we move away from insecure passwords?

  • For all other countries