Imposing Transparency in Indonesian E-Voting System through Security by Design

Claims on how Indonesia is ready to implement e-voting in its 2014 Presidential Election is doubted and believed to be premature. E-voting is a safety critical system on which the running of the country, the stable political and social environment, as well as public welfare and security depend highly. There is no room for any flaws in such critical system and for that, a good and appropriate design and implementation methodology is essential. This paper discusses the need for transparency during the design and implementation of the system and how it is necessary to have. The use of internet as the underlying technology in e-voting, for instance, casts doubts over the reliability of the system. Internet is a highly vulnerable system and this vulnerability is fundamental and comes with its design. The holes through which attackers could penetrate and cause malfunctions to systems connected to the internet are there to exploit, and they are known to the world. Therefore, this paper also proposes the use of Security by Design principle during the design and implementation of the e-voting system for the 2014 Presidential Election. Here, the proposed e-voting system should be made open and available for public assessment. The vulnerabilities should be exposed publicly through granted malicious practices and security measures should follow accordingly to minimize the impact.