The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Data from Swiss health foundation Radix leaked on the dark web

Hackers publish sensitive Radix data on the Darknet
Hackers publish sensitive Radix data on the Darknet Keystone-SDA

After the cyber attack suffered by the Radix foundation at the end of last month, sensitive personal data such as names and debts of people banned from casinos were published on the dark web.

Addresses, occupations and salaries also ended up online, SRF reported today.

The ransomware attack by the Sarcoma hacker group was reported by the Federal Office of Cyber Security (FCOS). The aim of the cybercriminals was to extort money.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

According to Swiss public broadcaster SRF, 1.3 terabytes of sensitive data were published on the dark webshortly after the attack. This would be one of the largest data leaks for a foundation of this kind in Switzerland.

In addition to information on players banned from casinos – whether voluntarily or not – information on a further 1,300 people can also be viewed. The majority of the content comes from the database of the Radix foundation’s centre for gambling addiction and other behavioural addictions.

Radix is a non-profit organisation active in health promotion. The FCOS, contacted by Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA, emphasised the importance of taking the necessary organisational and technical measures, as well as informing customers.

The foundation itself took a stance via the SRF news website: ‘The fact that sensitive information relating to the psychosocial care processes of casino guests has become accessible in this way on the Darknet is tragic and unacceptable in every respect,’ it reads.

Radix contacted all persons it could reach and took the necessary measures in cooperation with the Zurich data protection authority and the police.

Adapted from Italian by DeepL/ds

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch

Related Stories

Popular Stories

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR