Cryptology boffins’ association to re-run election after losing encryption key needed to count votes

The International Association for Cryptologic Research will run a second election for new board members and other officers, after it was unable to complete its first poll due to a lost encryption key.

As explained in November 21 election update, the association (IACR) used an electronic voting system called “Helios” to run its elections, with members able to vote between October 17 and November 16.

That phase of the election seems to have gone off without a hitch. But when vote-counting started, the association “encountered a fatal technical problem that prevents us from concluding the election and accessing the final tally.”

That problem related to the fact that the IACR’s bylaws require three members of its election committee to each hold a portion of the cryptographic key material required to jointly decrypt the results.

“This aspect of Helios’ design ensures that no two trustees could collude to determine the ...