When it comes to protecting data, two important areas to focus on are encryption in transit and encryption at rest.
Encryption in transit involves encrypting data while it’s being transferred, so that it cannot be intercepted as it travels from point A to point B. Communication between the voting system and the browsers of voters, election organizers, and Simply Voting staff has always been encrypted at all times to protect against attacks using strong protocols and ciphers. This is best practice for encryption in transit.
Encryption at rest involves encrypting data where it is stored, so that it cannot be used by an attacker that gains access to it.
The most sensitive information – passwords and votes – have always been encrypted by Simply Voting prior to being stored in the voting system’s database. This is an added layer of security to protect against a breach of the database.
Thanks to a recent upgrade of our database software, all data is now encrypted by the database engine before it is saved using a technology called Transparent Data Encryption. Not just passwords and votes but also elector information, candidate details, customer information, etc.. This is done using industry standard AES-256 encryption, and it applies to older data as well as new data moving forward. This technology provides an added layer of security to protect against unauthorized access to the storage used by the database.
Bottom line, Simply Voting is always working on better ways to protect our customers and their data.
