Kaspersky Lab, a global cyber security company, announced the winning collegiate teams in its Cybersecurity Case Study competition that was hosted by The Economist. A blockchain voting project by the New York University received the grand prize of $10K.

According to the release, the NY University’s submission proposed the usage of a “permissioned blockchain” configuration called ‘Votebook’. In this concept, a central authority admits voting machines to the network before the elections, followed by voting machines acting autonomously to build a public, distributed ledger of votes. Also, 'Votebook' allows voters to tell if their individual vote was counted.

“I want to wish congratulations to New York University for their victory in the 2016 Cybersecurity Case Study Competition. America has always been at the forefront of technological innovation and it is higher education programs, like the one at NYU, that will ensure we remain there,” U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, said.

The second prize was awarded to the University of Maryland and College Park and Newcastle University received the third place. The competition saw 19 teams from universities in the U.S. and U.K. that were challenged to create a blockchain technology solution for securing digital voting systems. Proposals were submitted in written and video formats, detailing on blockchain-compliant systems that addressed specific security challenges, including voter privacy, undecided voters, voter fraud and more.

“The competition was very interesting and I was very impressed with the submissions. There was a lot of good work there! If cybercriminals exploited one small vulnerability, it could potentially change the course of a nation’s history, and these young scholars are bringing us one step closer to making secure digital voting a reality,” Eugene Kaspersky, Chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab said.

The University of Maryland received $5,000 that proposed a solution rooted in global public keys that encrypt ballots and provide voter receipts using randomly generated numbers. Prize money of $3,000 was awarded to the Newcastle University, which proposed a solution rooted in three protocols: the Open Vote Network, DRE-i and DRE-ip.