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DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A FINGERPRINT-BASED PLATFORM FOR SECURING ELECTRONIC SYSTEM

BY

SALAKO, EMMANUEL ADEKUNLE B.Eng, M.Tech. (Minna) (CSC/16/1425)

A THESIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, SCHOOL OF COMPUTING, SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PHD) IN COMPUTER SCIENCE OF THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, AKURE, NIGERIA

JULY 2021

ABSTRACT An election is a formal procedure through which a group of individuals decides on an individual or multiple individuals to be in a position of authority. The mechanical and paper-based methods have been identified and used in history to conduct an election. In over two decades, the integration of electronic devices either wholly or partially into the electoral processes for decision-making was achieved having identified irregularities such as impersonation, false alteration and snatching of boxes in earlier methods of voting. Despite the measures to secure the voting systems from fraudulent activities among corrupt politicians and election officers, attackers have been compromising the security measures thereby, providing illegitimate opportunities for unwanted contestants to win elections. A fingerprint-based platform for securing an system was proposed for credible elections. The specific objectives were to design a fingerprint and visual semagram technique for securing an e-voting system, implement the designed e-voting system and evaluate the performance of the proposed e-voting model. The e-voting model consisted of six modules, namely enrolment, authentication, voting, results, semagramming, and desemagramming. The architectural design was implemented using Java in Android Studio and C- Sharp in Microsoft Visual Studio. In the enrolment module, two fingerprints from both the right and left hands of randomly sampled 131 genuine students of the Department of Computer Science were acquired. The fingerprints of the election officers were acquired and fused as the shared key to sign and verify the results and for results’ authentication. The fingerprints of 80 imposters were not processed but were used for experimentation with false identification. The fingerprints’ score was fused with the voter’s random identification number using the proposed fusion technique to produce a voter’s for authentication and voting. In the authentication and voting modules, a voter was granted access to the approved digital ballot to elect a preferred contestant when the voter’s ticket matched a template in the database. The votes of each contestant were stored in the polling database for onward transmission to the collation centre. In the results and semagramming modules, the results were encrypted, transformed into the sensitive image and concealed in the image of a carrier to generate the “Vimago” required at the collation centre. At the desemagramming module, the collation officer uncovered, decrypted and verified the received results using the shared key. The performance of the system was evaluated using standard metrics and further evaluated using goal-question metrics to establish the usability and satisfaction level. The proposed e-voting model had had an accuracy of 99.93%, sensitivity of 99.92% and specificity of 99.94%. A fusion technique for enrolment and authentication in a secure e-voting system and a secure transmission of election results against detection in a public network were established as the contribution to knowledge. Based on these results, the proposed e-voting model was recommended for use by various institutions like the Students Union Government, the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria and the State Security Service among others.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study Human is created by God with the capability to freely choose among many available options. Countries in the world have laws that empower every citizen to decide on specific issues that have effects on their living and society, and making such decision in elections is not exempted. An expression of interest by an individual in an election is a fundamental human right that must be protected at all times against violation. An election is a constitutionally guided procedure through which a certified individual expresses a decision among the available options. An election is typically a decision-making process that allows the populace to elect an individual into elective positions or offices to govern the society based on specific rules or laws. An election is a fundamental tool to choose representatives into various offices as pre-stated by the constituted authorities. In an election, a vote is a formal expression of choice that allows an individual to occupy an office. It is a fundamental process for genuine citizens to collectively, sincerely and formally express decision using approved . A voting system compasses a set of procedures that determine how people are elected into different positions. A voting system applies rules to ensure valid voting, and this involves lawful registration, how the populace cast their votes, how the votes are counted, and how the winners are decided to produce a satisfactory final result of an election (Ammarik and Yoshidalah, 2017). Citizens elect an individual to different constitutionally elective positions. These positions are legally occupied by the elected contestants for good governance that is geared towards human capacity building and national development. In addition, a group of people can be elected into various positions in an organisation and government offices. However, the fundamental objective of voting is to legally permit the populace (voters) to collectively make the decision and elect a preferred constant into a position of authority for representation and governance. For instance, in the constitutional amendments, electing or impeachment of political leaders; primarily involves the voting process. In a specific election, the populace either secretly or openly decides who governs them at different levels of government. The system is a type of voting system that allows the voters to confidentially choose a contestant into a position while the open ballot system allows the

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