Vanessa Teague facts for kids

Teague at Kiwicon in Wellington, New Zealand (2015)

Vanessa Joy Teague is an Australian expert in cryptography, which is the science of secure communication. She is known for her work on keeping information secret and safe, especially when it comes to electronic voting systems. She used to teach at the University of Melbourne and now teaches at the Australian National University (ANU). She also helps guide an organization called the Verified Voting Foundation.

Her Education Journey

Vanessa Teague studied at the University of Melbourne for her first degree. Later, in 2005, she earned her Ph.D. (a very high degree) in computer science from Stanford University in the United States. Her main project, called a dissertation, was about combining secret codes and game theory. Her professor, John C. Mitchell, helped her with it.

While she was studying in the US, she saw problems with how votes were counted in the 2000 US presidential election. This made her very interested in making sure elections are fair and accurate.

What She Has Done

Vanessa Teague has done important work to protect people's information and make sure systems are secure.

Protecting Health Data

In 2017, she found a big problem with old health records from Australia. These records, from the Australian Medicare Benefits Scheme, were supposed to be private. But Vanessa showed that it was possible to link them back to the names of individual patients. This meant people's health information was not as private as it should have been.

Finding Census Flaws

In 2018, Vanessa and her colleague Chris Culnane found a security problem in the New Zealand census. The census collects personal information from everyone in the country. They discovered that this private data, which should have stayed secret with the New Zealand government, was actually being sent through a company in New York. This meant the company in New York could see people's personal details.

Securing Voting Systems

In 2019, Vanessa was part of a team that found a serious flaw in Switzerland's online voting system. This flaw meant that someone could change the vote results without anyone noticing. Later, the same problem was found in voting systems used in New South Wales, Australia. Even with this flaw, the election officials there said their systems were safe to use.

Speaking Out for Privacy

Vanessa Teague also spoke out against Australia's 2019 laws about encryption. These laws made it harder for people to use strong encryption to protect their messages and data. At the same time, new rules made it difficult for her to talk about cryptography with other researchers in different countries.

Awards and Recognition

In 2016, a group called the Election Verification Network gave Vanessa Teague an award. She won their Election Integrity Research Excellence Award for her great work in making sure elections are fair and honest.