:: Deepquest ::

A computer hacker from Finland has been asked to break into one of California’s electronic voting machines as part of a security test initiated by the state.

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson asked Harri Hursti 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.

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.