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Switzerland issues cyber threat report every 8.5 minutes

A cyber-threat report every 8.5 minutes in Switzerland
A cyber-threat report every 8.5 minutes in Switzerland Keystone-SDA

Cyber threats are on the rise in Switzerland. Since it was set up at the beginning of the year, the Federal Office for Cyber Security (FOCS) has received an average of one report every eight and a half minutes. It has noted a sharp increase in attempted scams.

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In the first six months of this year, 34,789 incidents were recorded, the FOCS said on Thursday when it published its half-yearly report. This corresponds to almost twice as many reports as in the same period last year.

As in previous years, cases of fraud, phishing and spam continue to dominate the ranking of cyber incidents. The number of attempted scams rose sharply, with 23,104 cases reported. This represents two-thirds of all reports.

The phenomenon of bogus telephone calls purporting to be from the authorities is particularly striking, according to the FOCS. There was also a significant increase in the number of cases of phishing e-mails.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

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