COMPUTER wizards from QinetiQ in Malvern took part in electronic voting schemes across the country at last week's council elections.

The information technology experts carried out security and quality assurance assessments on nine of the 18 pilot schemes.

These included voting via the internet, telephone, text messaging, interactive TV and public kiosks.

QinetiQ's involvement was spurred by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which feared that any breach in security would undermine public confidence and could delay future plans for e-voting.

The QinetiQ team had to assess how well the equipment worked, voter authentication, voter anonymity and data confidentiality, as well as ensuring protection against hackers attacks.

"E-voting is potentially vulnerable to a wide range of attacks," said Ivan Salmons, QinetiQ project manager. "These range from isolated accidental errors, through to deliberate malice attacks. These could be by lone hackers, right through to co-ordinated attempts by protesters or even politically motivated groups."

However, QinetiQ's home district of Malvern Hills was not one of those which experimented with e-voting.

The district council was originally scheduled to take part, with voters having a chance to cast their ballot. But the scheme had to be abandoned earlier this year, after problems with MHDC's partner in the scheme.