Cyber attackers target Swiss defence sector
Switzerland’s defence minister, Guy Parmelin, has revealed that his ministry came under a significant cyber attack in January. The attack occurred while Parmelin was attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, however, the ministry was successfully defended. A local defence contractor, technology company Ruag, was also attacked with similar tactics at the same time; its servers were breached and sensitive information accessed. Officials suspect that Russian hackers may have been behind the attack, but have not been able to prove this. Parmelin suggested that economic espionage was behind the Ruag attack, but did not rule out that it might be the work of a state-backed group.

Swiss defense minister Guy Parmelin says his ministry faced a powerful cyber-attack this past winter, Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reports.

Parmelin says the attack took place in January while he was at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. At that time, Kaspersky warned of such incidents. The attack was fended off, and the minister says that the hackers weren't able to steal any sensitive information.

A local defense contractor was also attacked

This was not the case in a similar incident that also took place in Switzerland, when Ruag, a Bern-based technology company, was also attacked by a group utilizing the same tactics, this past January as well.

In that case, the hackers breached the company's servers and managed to exfiltrate sensitive information. Officials suspected Russian hackers, but they could not entirely prove it.

Ruag is a company specialized in ground, air and space technologies, and is also a supplier of military equipment and munitions to the Swiss military.

Politically-charged cyber-attacks have grown in numbers

Parmelin suspects economic espionage is the reason behind the attack but doesn't exclude a state-backed group either.

Just recently, a US company asked the US government to ban China steel imports because they claim that Chinese state-backed hackers have breached their servers, stolen proprietary information, and then gave it to Chinese competitors.

Last year, the Australian government faced similar cyber-attacks when they said that the companies which they tasked with designing its next-gen submarine were under a constant wave of cyber-attacks, which they suspected to be coming from China and Russia.

These and more attacks were recorded all last year. In most cases, accusations are always flung at the same two countries: Russia and China.

Only recently, Sweden accused Russia of attacking its air traffic control system with cyber-attacks, while Norway made it official, launching accusations at China via government channels.