\nNaturally, vice versa also applies, giving a potential attacker full control over the timing of the false notification pings. Based on that train of thought it’s easy to imagine a setup aimed at scaring unsuspecting voters away from polling places.
\nIt’s nowhere near being an active election threat
\nWhich isn’t to say large-scale voter-suppression is high on the list of risks associated with GAEN. In spite of its highly demonstrable nature, no one’s losing sleep over attempts to solve this attack vector. Because the likelihood of it leading to an actual malicious attempt at subverting the November 3rd elections are pretty slim.
\nJust like you wouldn’t eat soup with a fork, you wouldn’t attempt meaningful voter suppression through GAEN. „Meaningful” being „making a difference in the end.” If we’re simply talking doing enough to invite felony charges, than yes, GAEN alone would do. That about sums up the early peer review efforts concerning this analysis.
\nIronically, the easiest way to mitigate this theoretical election risk would be doing away with the API’s anonimity. Because if any third party was privy to the aforementioned Bluetooth key exchanges, it’d be able to verify the legitimacy of any such communications. Of course, a shift to a blockchain structure would do the same while preserving user anonimity, though it’s far from the easiest thing to code. As expected, Google and Apple prioritized speed of deployment above everything else while developing GAEN.
\nAgain, none of this precludes continued usage of GAEN and similar APIs. Because there’s still no end in sight to any vaccine development efforts. Which places religious contact tracing near the top of anyone’s list of best pandemic practices. Besides social distancing, itself, of course.
\nThe post Contact-Tracing API GAEN Labeled An Election Threat appeared first on Android Headlines.
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![](\"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Google-Apple-GAEN-Illustration-YouTube-ScreengrabsMockup.jpg\")
\nSource: ndroidheadlines.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"