Swisscom records over 200 million cyberattacks per month

Swisscom records over 200 million cyberattacks per month Keystone-SDA

Swiss state-owned telecommunications operator Swisscom has to defend against 200 million cyberattacks on its own infrastructure every month.

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This corresponds to around 77 cyberattacks per second. And the number of attacks is increasing, CEO Christoph Aeschlimann told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.

According to Aeschlimann, it is now very easy to launch hacker attacks without any special knowledge. Cybercrime is practically offered as a service.

“Anything that is visible and vulnerable is attacked,” he said. According to the Swisscom boss, a PC that goes online without protection can be found and hacked in less than five minutes.

Aeschlimann did not want to comment on where most of the attacks come from, but said that cyber criminals are spread around the world. They also operate from home offices, for example to extort money.

Need for action

Due to this growing threat, more and more is being invested in protection against cyberattacks. “We now have over 300 people at Swisscom who operate cybersecurity for us and our customers,” said Aeschlimann in the interview. Swisscom is also in close contact with the federal government, the army and the intelligence service for mutual information.

He gives Swiss companies good marks when it comes to cyber security. “Switzerland generally does this very well. There are many companies that provide excellent protection,” he said. Nevertheless, there are hundreds of servers that are not properly protected. “There is definitely a need for action.”

The fact that the federal government justifies its majority stake in Swisscom with national security and sovereignty shows the growing awareness of the importance of cyber defence.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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