Minister keen to see startups taking on EVM hacking challenge

Information Technology Minister Priyank Kharge said his department would encourage startups to take up the challenge of ethically hacking into electronic voting machines.

Kharge, who has announced that Karnataka was ready to host the challenge of ethical hacking of EVMs, tweeted, “Any Karnataka startups interested in the challenge?”

When contacted by this paper, the minister said, “Two persons have shown interest in accepting the challenge. Maybe somebody from the IT department too 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 for those who want to hack EVMs. “The EC should not select the machines. A random selection of EVMs should be allowed so that there is no room for doubt about the selection,” he said.

Asked whether he would express 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.