Hackers find only minor issues with Swiss Post’s e-voting system
For certain groups, including Swiss citizens living abroad, e-voting is an important issue.
Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Hackers find only minor issues with Swiss Post’s e-voting system
A recent public test of the Swiss Post’s electronic voting system, involving 7,000 ethical hackers from around the world, found four reported vulnerabilities, of which only one – of “low severity” – was confirmed.
Swiss Post said on Thursday that during the test period, which ran from June 17 to July 3, attacks were registered from 6,923 IP addresses from 62 countries.
The aim of the test, which was run under the same conditions which are used for real elections and votes, was to uncover possible security flaws.
Only one vulnerability (of “low” degree, on a scale also including “medium”, “high” and “critical”) was found, Swiss Post said. It was not a security-relevant issue, but rather a suggestion to improve communication between servers to prevent simultaneous searches. Swiss Post has already updated its software accordingly.
The hacker who uncovered the flaw pocketed a prize of CHF4,500 ($5,242) – CHF1,500 for the notification plus a CHF3,000 bonus for being the first to report it.
The prize money however amounted to a meagre haul compared to what would have been awarded to anyone who managed to breach the system seriously: a discovery of critical vulnerabilities would have meant a booty of CHF50,000, while managing to manipulate the electronic ballot without leaving a trace would have meant CHF250,000.
Adapted from Italian by DeepL/dos
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Multinational companies
Azeri fossil-fuel cash cow brings controversy to Switzerland
Beer sales in Switzerland watered down by bad weather
This content was published on
The past brewing year fell through in Switzerland, partly due to the bad weather. Beer sales shrank again. For the first time, per capita consumption fell below the 50 liter mark.
Compensation for Syrian after pregnant wife denied help on Swiss train
This content was published on
Switzerland’s Federal Court has partially upheld the appeal of a Syrian family being deported from Switzerland to Italy in 2014. The man now also receives compensation.
Swiss-EU negotiations: Cassis to meet Sefcovic in Bern
This content was published on
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis will meet the Vice-President of the EU Commission, Maros Sefcovic, in Bern on Wednesday.
Heavy snowfall in Switzerland causes traffic chaos and accidents
This content was published on
The heavy snowfall late on Thursday and during the night into Friday led to traffic chaos and many accidents in many regions of Switzerland.
Chimpanzee behaviours passed down through generations
This content was published on
Some of the complex behaviours of chimpanzees have been passed down and refined over generations. These include the combination of several tools for foraging.
More than 600,000 rounds of Swiss sniper ammunition reach Ukraine
This content was published on
Sniper ammunition from Swiss P Defence reached Ukraine via a Polish company in July 2023, reported SRF Investigativ on Thursday, citing official information.
Switzerland launches national digital inclusion alliance
This content was published on
The Swiss government launched the Swiss Digital Inclusion Alliance on Thursday with the goal of giving as many people as possible access to digital services.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.