German Election Software Reportedly Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

29-year-old IT scientist Martin Tschirsich from the federal state of Hesse found a number of vulnerabilities in the software for calculating results of federal elections in Germany.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The PC Wahl software used for calculating results of elections in Germany can be hacked and the results of the vote thus can be manipulated, local media reported on Thursday.

The software was studied by 29-year-old IT scientist Martin Tschirsich from the federal state of Hesse, who found a number of vulnerabilities in PC Wahl, Die Zeit media outlet reported.

Moreover, he managed to find in the internet several passwords giving partial access to the program's maintenance.

According to the Spiegel magazine, the software's manufacturer had already denied the allegations that PC Wahl was vulnerable to cyberattacks. Local election authorities called the situation concerning but pointed out that the election results can be checked at any moment and there is no opportunity to manipulate the results of the vote.

Germany’s federal elections are slated for September 24, 2017. People will make a choice using voting papers but the results will be processed with the help of special software.

The western countries are concerned over the possible interference in the election process after the United States accused Russia of meddling in its last year's presidential election. Moscow denied the accusations saying it had never tried to influence any elections in foreign states.