Julio Olivo said they have removed IT personnel related to attack attempts. Magistrate Guillermo Wellman said the system is secured with padlocks.
Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) magistrate Julio Olivo said they could face attacks internally during the development of tomorrow’s election, according to what the collegiate entity’s private security firm has confirmed.
“We have an internal enemy, it has to be said, the company that manages security has told us that in more than 90%, and all companies agree, the attacks we can face are internal,” said the magistrate. in a morning interview. Yesterday.
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Olivo noted that at a meeting of the collegiate body, he suggested to magistrates to hire more private security as it might be necessary if the President of the Republic, Nayib Bukele, ordered the National Civil Police (PNC) to magistrates, or for a person to access the transmission system and disconnect it from the National Center for the Processing of Election Results (CNPRE).
Personal security, he said, could counter any kind of aggression from the PNC.
“The doubt comes from, remember, that they robbed us of our freedom, they kidnapped us, and that the police had a role in which it practically gave the kidnappers security, because they wanted to force us to register candidates that even the Constitutional Chamber the courage to say they couldn’t be registered, like Mr. (Walter) Araujo, ”said Olivo.
The magistrate explained that on the day the first test of the technology was conducted, on February 7, TSE personnel had prepared the system so that it did not reveal any results and that it was perceived from the outside as not working, a sabotage that the executed person who was removed from the position on the computer science committee and who was in possession of the system’s codes and passwords.
This situation gave them problems in the test, but he confirmed that now that international organizations are already stepping in, things will be different, where they expect Spain’s Electoral Surveillance Board and National Cryptological Center to verify that the system is closed.
“We are still removing staff, moving them from one place to another, people trusted by these people (director of the IT committee), in fact we had to call the electoral prosecutor (on the day of the test), you can tell the Attorney General that the prosecution there took a bold move because she was the one who helped us obtain the passwords and source codes of a subject who took possession of those passwords, ”said Olivo.
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He also noted that currently the software used in the elections is prepared for the transmission, processing and dissemination of results, as well as the software that resides on the computer and will be used by the voice receiving boards (JRV).
In the case of the international audit, he stated that it cost $ 19,000, but that the company that would run it asked for the system’s codes and passwords, which would leave him vulnerable. the magistrates did not reach a collegiate agreement and they did not approve its development.
Photo EDH / Jonatan Funes.
System with sufficient padlocks
In the same interview, the TSE magistrate, Guillermo Wellman, said that the system to be used in the elections has enough locks so that the population is assured that the process will be transparent.
“Only the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic will deploy more than 1,800 delegates to ensure that this electoral process is within all legal measures and that ongoing oversight ensures that this election event cannot and will not be changed,” Wellman said.
He added that he is accused of wanting to commit fraud in the elections, like Magistrate Olivo, which is not true as they have always worked under the law.
He also said that there are more than 3,000 international observers who will follow the development of the elections, one of the most important being the National Cryptology Center of Spain, which will provide the computer system with cybersecurity to prevent it from being altered, in addition to election observers from Spain. the European Union, who arrived two weeks ago to observe the automated process.
Since last Wednesday, the Organization of American States (OAS) observation mission has also been analyzing the system that will be used in the elections.
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Technology performance
Tomorrow the TSE will use tabletop technology where each JRV will be equipped with a technology box containing a laptop, a dedicated charger, an HDMI cable (to connect the projector that will be used at the time of counting) and a scanner. They also give you an extra pack of extensions, a strip and sheet of paper to print the preliminary record.
They will also have a UPS to protect the equipment from power outages and for safety if there is an outage at the time of the check, court technicians explained.
“It has been validated with padlocks and secured. The program that will be developed is super simple, it is a basic program to register the votes only when counting, it is elementary, more than 140,000 people have already been trained to act in the JRV “, Magistrate Wellman pointed out. .
He also noted that they receive support from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (Ifes), a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) partnership that monitors the computer system.
To support the computing equipment, the TSE has appointed a support person for every 10 JRVs to assist them in the event of a failure in the system to be used.
The moment the laptop is turned on in the JRV, the system will immediately open and they have to scan the DUI of the president, secretary, vote and other members, then record the number of ballots left. and unused, and then record each ballot with their respective marks.
Then the number of invalid votes, abstentions and disputed and missing ballots is entered. The minutes are then printed and then the original signed and stamped provisional close of the audit is scanned.