Switzerland Today
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Switzerland is gearing up to host an international summit to find a peaceful solution for the Ukraine war. But will this peace effort mark Switzerland as a target for Russian-sponsored cyber attacks? Read on to find out more.
In the news: students engage in pro-Palestine sit-ins, new Vatican Swiss Guard recruits sworn in and UBS returns to profit
- Hundreds of students are staging a pro-Palestinian sit-in at the University of Lausanne and at the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) to protest at unfolding events in the Middle East.
- UBS bank has recorded a first quarter profit of CHF1.6 billion as it continues to integrate the now-defunct Credit Suisse.
- TradeXBank, the former Swiss branch of Russia’s Sberbank, has been taken off the sanctions list of the Office of US Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
- Geneva has decided not to remove statues linked to colonialism and slavery, but instead to provide the public with more information and context about them.
- The Pontifical Swiss Guard has received 34 new recruits at a swearing-in ceremony at the Vatican.
How the Ukraine peace summit could be disrupted
Having offered to host a Ukraine peace summit in June, Switzerland might have to double down on its cyber defences in the coming months, according to media reports.
The reason is that Russia has turned its back on the talks, which will be held June 15-16 at the Bürgenstock resort in the canton of Nidwalden.
Russia refuses to acknowledge the worth of a summit that is expected to attract delegations from 160 countries.
CH Media believes Russia could try to disrupt the summit with a new wave of cyber attacks. The media group points out that the pro-Russian “NoName” group launched 57 Distributed Denial-of Service (DDoS) attacks on Switzerland last year.
The attacks followed a parliamentary decision on War Materiel and then after the announcement of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s virtual address to the Swiss parliament.
Websites of the federal administration, Swiss Federal Railways, Swiss Post, major Swiss companies, airports and municipalities were targeted.
And cyber attacks picked up again when Zelensky visited the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.
According to Switzerland’s cyber security office, the number of reported cyber incidents in Switzerland (originating from all over the world) nearly doubled in the second half of last year, compared to the same period in 2022.
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