The International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR), a leading global voice in encryption, has had to cancel the announcement of its leadership election results after an official lost the encrypted key needed to unlock them, the BBC reports.
The “honest but unfortunate human mistake” made it impossible for them to decrypt – uncover – the final results.
The IACR is a global non-profit organisation which was founded in 1982 with the aim to “further research” in cryptology, the science of secure communication.
It opened votes for three Director and four Officer positions on 17 October, with the process closing on 16 November.
However, as a result of one of the trustees “irretrievably” losing their private key, it was “technically impossible” for the organisation to know the final verdict.
American cryptographer Bruce Schneier told the BBC that failures in cryptographic systems often came from the fact that “to provide any actual security” they have to be “operated by humans”.
[Image: Markus Spiske on Unsplash]