Hacker to test security of electronic voting machines
By: Associated Press | ∞
SACRAMENTO -- A computer hacker will try to break into one of California's electronic voting machines as part of a security test initiated by the state.
Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, has been given the go-ahead by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to attempt to infiltrate one of the voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems.
The company is one of the nation's largest manufacturers of electronic voting systems and is trying to get its new system approved for use in California.
The tests will use a randomly selected voting machine from one of the 17 counties that currently use a Diebold system.
After a test in July in San Joaquin County, the state refused to certify Diebold's new, printer-equipped voting machines after 20 percent of the machines malfunctioned.
"The secretary said that performance wasn't good enough," said Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a spokeswoman for McPherson's office.
Hursti was asked to try to demonstrate that machines made by Diebold are vulnerable to hacker attacks and can be used to manipulate the results of an election.
The company's machines were blamed for disruptions in the March 2004 primary election in California.
Two months later, then-Secretary of State Kevin Shelley pulled the certification of Diebold machines in four counties and restricted their use in 10 other counties until their security could be improved.
Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle
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