Hackers posted data from the Swiss Federal Police Office (Fedpol) and the Federal Office of Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) on the dark web after exploiting a vulnerability on the hosting company’s servers.
According to Le Temps newspaper, the cantonal police and army are also indirect victims of the cyberattack.
The newspaper says that the unprecedented attack highlights the vulnerability of IT service providers, according to “Swissinfo”.
The Federal Police Office and the Federal Customs Office confirmed the publication of the data, but played down the extent of the damage.
The “ransom attack” targeted the company “Xplain” Xplain, which includes among its clients several departments of the federal administration in Switzerland.
“The civil authorities have opened criminal proceedings over the piracy. The police are investigating the matter,” an army spokesman told AFP, noting that he had been using “a software solution from Explane for several years” and was running “via the Union’s own servers.”
The spokesman stressed that the attack did not affect the army system, and did not result in data leakage from its systems.
For his part, Andreas Lovinger, director of Expline, denied any contact between the company and the pirates, stressing, “We will not pay a ransom.”
He said he sought help from the National Cyber Security Center in the aftermath of the cyberattack, adding, “We will not be able to determine the exact timing of the attack and the scale of the data theft until the authorities release the information.”
Switzerland has seen an increasing number of cyberattacks in recent years, including attacks on local authorities, doctors’ offices, media companies and economic giants such as ABB and Swissport.
Source: sputnik