Karnataka IT minister challenges to hack EVM
Bengaluru, Apr 14 : Karnataka Information & Technology Minister Priyank Kharge has said that his department would encourage startups to come forward to accept the challenge of conducting ethical hacking of electronic voting machines.
Kharge, who has announced that Karnataka is ready host ethical hacking of EVMs challenge, had tweeted, “Any Karnataka startups interested in the challenge?”
When contacted by DH, the minister said, “Two persons have shown interest in accepting the challenge. May be from the IT department too somebody could try. The intention is to ensure that EVMs are tamper-proof and people do not lose faith in the machine. After all EVMs decide the fate of 1.2 billion people of this country.”
Kharge said the Election Commission should give at least 10 days to those who want to hack EVMs. “The EC should not be selecting the machines. A random selection of EVMs should be allowed so that there would be no room for doubts about the selection,” he said.
Asked whether he would be expressing his views to the EC, the minister replied in the positive. “The EC has already taken some decisions. I was keen to host the hackathon here,” he added.