Venezuela is immersed in one in all its deepest political crises, following the presidential elections held on Sunday, July 28, whose legitimacy is at the moment the topic of controversy. The main target of the controversy lies within the veracity of the election outcomes and regardless of the uncertainty, there may be one factor that’s simple: the electoral information have a degree of inviolability corresponding to that maintained by the Bitcoin community all through its 15-year historical past.
In keeping with Gerardo Prado, a pc scientist from Venezuela, the electoral information which can be issued by the voting machines of the Nationwide Electoral Council (CNE), They’re protected by an encryption system and digital signatures.
Which means that every doc has a hash (alphanumeric code) which, as indicated by the CriptoNoticias Bitcoin training academy, refers to the results of changing a message of any measurement into an alphanumeric sequence utilizing a hash perform. This perform mixes and transforms the knowledge right into a fixed-length code, which might solely be deciphered with particular keys, thus defending the unique content material.
As we talked about earlier than, the precept of inviolability of the electoral information of Venezuela is similar as that of Bitcoin know-how. It ought to be remembered that this protocol, which carries 15 years working with out hacks or technical issuesrelies on the SHA256 algorithm.
In itself, SHA256 is likely one of the quite a few forms of algorithms that exist to create hashes on totally different platforms with numerous capabilities starting from doc authentication, digital signature verification and cryptocurrency mining. The SHA (Safe Hash Algorithm) collection was designed by the American Nationwide Safety Company (NSA) and contains SHA256. This was the identical algorithm chosen by Satoshi Nakamoto to run the Bitcoin blockchain.
Within the electoral case, the SHA256 algorithm performs a number one function. It’s because the perform generates a novel hash for every electoral document or voting pollwhich may be verified when the votes are totaled. Any discrepancy signifies that the outcomes have been altered.
Basically, SHA256 ensures information integrity, stopping anybody from modifying transactions (or votes). It’s because the algorithm itself is a type of excessive safety.
Within the case of the Venezuelan elections, the digital signatures of the electoral information have the HMACSHA256 format, that’s, they’re composed of two algorithms. The primary one, HMAC, and the second, SHA256. In keeping with Prado, though this isn’t the most effective mixture that may very well be chosen for these circumstances, “it’s fairly widespread.”
In Venezuela, the electoral information have digital signatures in QR code format. These present the votes that the document comprises and permit, in a scrutiny and audit course of, the originality of the doc is verified. To do that, the hash or signature of the QR code should be calculated once more, and if it’s the similar because the one on the document, it signifies that it’s legitimate and was printed by a CNE voting machine.
“Briefly, the CNE can at all times show {that a} document is legitimate and solely wants the QR code and the digital signature,” says Prado. One thing that coincides with the feedback of the journalist specialised in elections, Eugenio Martínez, who clarifies that, to confirm the originality of an electoral document, The authenticity of the hash and digital signature of the doc should be audited.
In keeping with Prado, with the digital key it’s potential to recalculate the signature and examine it in opposition to the signature that seems within the document. If they’re equal, “then the document is unequivocally actual”he claims.
“It’s because the one method to have arrived on the similar signature is to have used the identical enter, the identical key and the identical message,” he mentioned. He then added that solely the voting machine that issued the electoral document “is aware of the important thing.”
Due to this fact, “solely the voting machine can concern legitimate signatures.” And though an attacker can create false information, “he can’t create false signatures as a result of he doesn’t know the important thing,” he explains.
The above signifies that the electoral information in Venezuela are virtually inviolable since to ensure that them to be falsified, All parameters should match completely cryptographicwhich may be very troublesome to realize. This, Gerardo Prado remembers, is “a assure that’s given within the earlier audit processes” carried out by the CNE.
Disaster in Venezuela
Since final Sunday, July 28, Venezuela has been dealing with a brand new section of political disaster. On that day, presidential elections had been held which were severely questioned. It’s because not all the electoral information have been printed.
Venezuela’s CNE introduced the outcomes round midnight on Sunday in a primary bulletin, which allegedly included 80% of the full votes. In keeping with these outcomes, the present president, Nicolás Maduro, received with greater than 5 million votes and the primary opposition candidate, Edmundo González, He got here in second with simply over 4 million votes.
The Venezuelan opposition didn’t acknowledge the election outcomes and relied on the minutes to defend itself. These had been issued and delivered to the witnesses on the voting tables on election day, in accordance with what the electoral legislation dictates of that nation.
The opposition says they have already got it of their possession greater than 80% of the electoral information. In addition they declare that these give Edmundo González the victory with greater than 8 million votes, effectively above Maduro, who would have obtained simply over 3.5 million.
Virtually 5 days after the election, The CNE has not but made the electoral information publicThey declare that since Sunday they’ve been victims of a hack originating in North Macedonia and allegedly orchestrated by the opposition.
On the night of Tuesday, July 30, Maduro mentioned that the electoral physique is beneath a “sturdy cyber assault” and that’s the reason the minutes haven’t been printed. Earlier than that, nevertheless, he promised the Judiciary to ship “100% of the minutes.” that his occasion apparently has at hand.
This alleged assault has not been confirmed thus far. In reality, the cybersecurity agency Kaspersky indicated that no assaults had been recorded on Venezuela in the course of the presidential elections. That is additionally denied by laptop scientist Jesús Lara, who claims that he has “not discovered proof” that there was a cyber assault on the Caribbean nation.