Cryptology firm cancels elections after losing encryption key

The International Association for Cryptologic Research - created to study secure communication - said it was an "honest human mistake."

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The International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) uses an electronic voting system which needs three members, each with part of an encrypted key, to access the results.

In a statement, the scientific organisation said one of the trustees had lost their key in "an honest but unfortunate human mistake", making it impossible for them to decrypt - and uncover - the final results.

The IACR said it would rerun the election, adding "new safeguards" to stop similar mistakes happening again.

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.