Quote of the day

Seen in a Slashdot sig :

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest"

- Thomas Paine

Do the "Yes Man" dance!

Blimey! Finally had time to read and digest all of Jason Kitcats post about me. You really know you've arrived on the scene when someone spends all morning writing something that long huh? (and securing their site against some basic security problems).

The main points I see from the article are:

• My confusion over voter trust in electoral processes vs electoral models
  
• Voter trust in pre-encrypted ballots
  
• Coercion and vote selling in remote voting systems
  
• Database tallies
  
• Certification of code
  
• Authority of opinion
  
• Schneiers' quote
  
• Verifiability (process & source)
  
• Backup and disaster recovery
  
• Paper system problems

I think that's the lot, I'll try to knock these off on at a time, but work and life in general are very hectic at the moment (What with Christmas and all). If there's anything that anyone thinks you've missed, please leave a comment.

A tiny victory!

Just noticed that the article over on the Open Rights Group wiki concerning eVoting has been changed to remove a reference to pilots being funded by the Local Authorities (I'd appended a note to the effect that it wasn't being funded by the LAs).

Yes, Jason is correct that not all of the cost is being met by DCA funding, but 95% of it is, with the Local Authorities only having to meet marketing costs (the level of which is up to them), and additional staffing costs (which shouldn't be too high as automation is supposed to reduce staffing, not always the case I know, but certainly the goal).

I will respond...

I will be getting back to Jason Kitcats post about me, when time permits. I'll probably address a point at a time, as this blog isn't part of my job, and the family and hobbies take up a lot of my time at home.

A brief history

I've been asked about my professional history and qualifications, so here's a quick summary :

Education

11 GCSEs, 3 A Levels, HND in Computing

Professional Experience

Currently employed as a Senior Consultant at a leading UK software house that specialises in secure transactional software (don't ask which, I don't want them dragged into this discussion as of yet, these are my opinions, not theirs), where I have worked on :

• eVoting platform used by schools and youth organisations across the country,
• Online banking product currently used by one UK bank, being evaluated by several others,
• Mortgage brokerage system used by a UK high street mortgage provider, which transacts several billion pounds worth of business each year

Before that I worked for redweb Ltd in Poole, Dorset as a Senior Web Developer where I:

• Architected, designed and lead the development of the EPA project for the now IPS government department
• Developed a web framework for content and eCommerce sites
• Architected, designed and developed a bespoke accountancy service allowing small businesses to conduct their accountancy work online

Priort to this I worked as a systems developer / administrator for a couple of SMEs in the south of England.