[PLUG] ACM/IEEE-CS Thu 16 Nov Meeting

[Walt Mankowski <waltman@netaxs.com>]

With all the controversy surrounding last week's election, this should
be a great meeting.

Walt

----- Forwarded message from John DeGood <jdegood@sarnoff.com> -----

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Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 09:11:07 -0500 (EST)
From: John DeGood <jdegood@sarnoff.com>
To: waltman@netaxs.com
Subject: ACM/IEEE-CS Thu 16 Nov Meeting
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* We thought this month's topic would be timely for November,
  but interest has exploded as a result of the ongoing Presidential
  election drama.  Our speaker is being bombarded with media
  interview requests.  An Associated Press story quoting her went
  out Sunday afternoon, she is doing an NPR broadcast Tuesday (today)
  from 1-2 PM, and now Dateline NBC is calling.  Other media are
  known to be traveling here Thursday to cover her talk.  So
  consider arriving a little early for this meeting, as there
  may be a crowd!  The announcement appears below, and also at:
  http://www.acm.org/chapters/princetonacm/mtg0011.html
  
* Upcoming chapter meetings:

  Thu 14 Dec - Online Privacy:  What are People So Concerned
  About and What is Being Done About it?, Lorrie Faith Cranor,
  AT&T Labs-Research.  For details see:
  http://www.acm.org/chapters/princetonacm/mtg0012.html

  Thu 18 Jan - Cable and DSL Internet Connections:  Implementation
  and Security Issues, Steve Heffner, Pennington Systems

* The IEEE Philadelphia Section is sponsoring "E-Commerce
  Architecture 101" a 2-day short course Dec 4-5 at the Temple
  University Fort Washington Campus.  For information see:
  http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/philadelphia/templeclass.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------

          PRINCETON ACM / IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY CHAPTERS
                   NOVEMBER 2000 JOINT MEETING

               Why Computers Shouldn't Count Votes

               Rebecca Mercuri, Bryn Mawr College

The recent Presidential election has demonstrated major difficulties
in the democratic process of counting votes.  Even though the ballot
problems in Florida were previously well known, voting and tabulating
methods that are fundamentally flawed continue to be used there and
elsewhere around the country.  Proponents of electronic and web-based
voting systems are quick to criticize punch cards and lever machines
as being slow and antiquated.  Yet the new computer-based systems
promise to further compromise voter privacy and recount capability,
a fact that some vendors and election boards do not want voters to
know.

This talk will review lessons learned from the recent Presidential
election and prior contested Florida elections, and will assess
California's new Internet Voting Task Force proposal.  It will also
present some of the technical issues and challenges for secure
electronic voting.

One approach to addressing these issues is the Common Criteria (CC),
a security assurance methodology issued by the International
Standards Organization (ISO) in the late 1990s.  While the CC is
extensive in scope, it does not resolve all issues of computer
security, particularly when there are conflicting constraints such
as the need for both anonymity and auditability.  This talk will
consider the application of the CC approach to electronic voting,
and point out unavoidable flaws in the design of certain types of
secure systems.

Rebecca Mercuri has written extensively and provided expert
testimony and commentary on many electronic voting systems
including those in Florida, New York City, Pennsylvania, and
Hawaii.  Her Ph.D. thesis from the University of Pennsylvania's
School of Engineering is titled "Electronic Vote Tabulation
Checks & Balances."

She has been quoted extensively in the media on the current
Presidential election, including by the Associated Press,
Newhouse news service, the LA Times, NPR, and WHYY radio in
Philadelphia.  Her sworn affidavit regarding why hand recounts
are important was part of the legal brief submitted to the
judge Monday morning.

A resident of Lawrenceville, Dr. Mercuri is a member of the
Computer Science faculty at Bryn Mawr College, and is President
of Notable Software, Inc. <http://www.notablesoftware.com>.
She is a founding board member of the ACM Princeton Chapter.
Her main fields of emphasis are interactive multimedia and
computer forensics.  She also speaks frequently on digital audio
topics.

Date: Thursday, November 16, 2000, 8:00 PM
Location: Sarnoff Corporation, 201 Washington Rd (Rt 571 1/4 mi
south of US 1), Princeton, NJ

Additional Information:
Web site and directions:  http://www.acm.org/chapters/princetonacm
Call:  Douglas Dixon (609) 734-3176, Dennis Mancl (908) 582-7086,
or David Soll (215) 854-3461
E-mail:  mailto:princetonacm@acm.org
Recorded message:  (609) 924-8704

Princeton ACM / IEEE Computer Society meeting are open to the
public, and students are welcome. There is no admission charge,
and refreshments are served.

A pre-meeting dinner with the speaker is held at 6 p.m. at the
Rusty Scupper on Alexander Road in Princeton. If you would like
to attend, please RSVP with an e-mail to mailto:princetonacm@acm.org.


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