Information Assurance

Information assurance, IA: are proposed by US department of defense in 1990s. After several modifications, enhancements, have been widly recognized around the world. The human society has entered the information age. The information has become a very important strategic resource. Information and information systems security has become a 21st century national security especially a key factor in military security.
Information assurance is also key in voting. When using voting machines it is vital that every vote gets counted accurately. There have been problems in the past with using paper cards for voting. One such incident occured in Florida where they had"dangling" chad situation won't happen but other technological problems can occur.
As information is widely spread in nowadays, the most useful data is scattered and hidden. The reasons for that are the distribution of information among many companies, the useful outputs(of benefit to all parties) from information that can be computed, the online collaborative computing which has large potential benefits and the reluctance to reveal information. For example, proprietary information can help people to compete, and the revealing corporate strategy and performance can lead to a failure. So people begin to figure out a secure way for a single person to deal with information that can be used by several people who don't know each other's information. Secure Multiparty Computation is protocols for computing with data without learning it, and the final answer are the same as if the information had been fully shared. But actually they just know themselves' calculation method and the input. This method has lots of advantages such preserving confidentiality, using even with trusted counterparts and legality.
When I refer to voting, I think it is one the simplest things. I have some non-politic votes in the past. For instance, every year there is a election of class monitor and vice class monitor. First those participates are announced at the beginning of the voting, then every one takes out a piece of paper to write the person who can surely afford the responsibility of a monitor. Finally, the result will be counted, and the voting ends. However, as far as I am concerned, when it comes to a politic voting, it becomes much more formal. Rules are needed to make sure the voting conducts all people's will. There are several complications should be considered: anonymity, validity of voter, limits on choices, privacy and verification. However, voting is not always best to some extent because voting can never be one hundred percent in out real life. There are points that are hold by different kinds of people come from different places. This makes me think about the politic voting in China. Due to the large amount of people. When choosing a president or modifing law, they can't listening to more than 1.3 billion people at a time, which is not conductable. There are representers to represent each district across China. The final voters who decide the modification of law and some important elections are called National People's representers. There are also conferences in districts and it refers to district People's representers. I have no ideas about whether this kind of voting is fair or not, but I am sure that voting can hard'y be perfect. For example, there are some conditions for voting progress that are still problems today: accurate, secure, reliable, easy to conduct audits and recounts, easy to understand and accessible.
In conclusion, the voting is now taking more and more factors into consideration. It will be more reliable and securer. The information assurance will still be a topic, and we have long to go.


What of possible solutions ot this voting issue? While software will always have its flaws, having a more controlled and closed development environment would increase the likeliness of accuracy in voting results. Voting machines based on Windows XP and accessible with a universal key isn't exactly the most precise voting operation. Closed platforms, while stifling innovation, allow for a more controlled approach to the content and access of various parts of the system and therefore a guaranteed (or mostly at least) user experience/ consistency.