E-voting Indian researcher wins pioneer award in US

"Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru is a security researcher in India who recently revealed security flaws in India's paperless electronic voting machines.

He has endured jail time, repeated interrogations, and ongoing political harassment to conduct the first independent security review of India's electronic voting system," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said in a statement.

EFF's Pioneer Awards recognize leaders who are extending freedom and innovation on the electronic frontier.

Past honorees include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, security expert Bruce Schneier, and the Mozilla Foundation and its chairman Mitchell Baker, among many others.

The annual awards have been in vogue since 1992. Hari Prasad is the first Indian to receive this prestigious award.

Three other awardees for the Pioneer award in 2010 are Transparency Activist, Stephen Aftergood, public domain scholar James Boyle; and legal blogger Pamela Jones and the website Groklaw.

"These winners have all worked tirelessly to give critical insight and context to the tough questions that arise in our evolving digital world," said EFF executive director Shari Steele.

"We need strong advocates, educators, and researchers like these to protect our digital rights, and we're proud to Honor these four Pioneer Award winners for their important contributions," Steele said.

The award ceremony is scheduled for November 8 in San Francisco. Pioneer Award candidates are nominated by the public and the winners of 2010 were chosen by a panel of eminent judges.

"Prasad spent a year trying to convince election officials to complete such a review, but they insisted that the government-made machines were "perfect" and "tamperproof.
Instead of blindly accepting the government's claim, Prasad's international team discovered serious flaws that could alter national election results.

Prasad hopes to help his country build a transparent and verifiable voting system," EFF said.