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Staff data stolen in cyberattack on Swiss public broadcaster

Cyberattack on the SSR: data theft from the SRF
The data breach involves contact and organisational details of around 340 current and former SRF staff members. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), Swissinfo's parent company, has been targeted by a cyberattack in which data belonging to employees of German-language broadcaster SRF was stolen. So far, there is no indication that sensitive information has been published or misused.

The data breach involves contact and organisational details of around 340 current and former SRF staff members, dating from 2020, the SBC said in a statement on Monday. These include names, job titles and professional contact details, as well as some private contact details.

There is currently no indication that personal passwords, financial or banking details, journalistic sources, research data or communications content have been affected. The data mainly relates to staff from the current Information department of the SRF unit.

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According to current information, no further unauthorised access has taken place and the incident is under control, the company said. Staff in other units do not appear to have been affected.

Criminal complaint

Having discovered that unauthorised individuals had accessed data belonging to SRF staff, the public broadcaster took immediate action. It deactivated the affected access points and implemented additional security measures. A criminal complaint has been filed.

There is currently no evidence that the stolen data has been compromised. A thorough investigation is under way, with the cooperation of internal and external specialists, to clarify the causes and extent of the attack.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.

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