Dear Government Communications Security Bureau,

In 2019, during the Government discussions on proposals to introduce online voting for local and national elections in NZ, you advised that risks of hacking were high and that the Government should not proceed with the option. e.g. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/...

Online voting systems have improved security substantially since then and have been reliably used in Estonia and Switzerland. The Swiss Open Source system in particular appears sufficiently robust. https://evoting-community.post.ch/en/abo...

With the decline of letter post, online voting options will need to be reviewed again at least for 2028/2029 local and national elections.

Please provide any advice you have given since 2019 to the public or local or national agencies on the security implications or risks of online voting.

Do you have any current assessment of those security risks and, if so, can you provide it to assist current discussions?

This query relates only to the integrity and security of systems to provide online voting capability. It does request documents or assessments related to the obvious, growing, and likely more extensive risks of election outcome influencing through distribution of misinformation, disinformation and propaganda, or bribery or political funding.

Yours faithfully,

William Foster

Dear Information (GCSB),

Thanks for this.

Yes. Sorry! The "not" got omitted in editing... It should say -
"It does not request documents or assessments…”

Yours sincerely,

William Foster