Swiss Federal Office of Customs and Border Security

History

2023: Swiss police and customs data leak

In June 2023, the attackers published data from the Federal Police Department and the Federal Directorate of Customs and Border Security on the darknet. Hackers took advantage of a vulnerability on the servers of the IT company Xplain, which placed them.

The Federal Police and Customs Service Switzerland confirmed the publication of the stolen data on the Internet, but assured that it does not pose a significant threat to government departments. Provider Xplain notified the police office of the incident days before the base appeared on the dark web, a Swiss police spokesman said. At the same time, as far as is known, none of the law enforcement projects suffered, and Xplain had access only to anonymized data for test purposes, which completely lost contact with the subject of personal data, i.e. Swiss citizens.

Hackers posted data from police and customs in Switzerland

The Swiss Federal Customs Service said on June 10, 2023 that the attack did not affect the data of the country's customs itself. However, the attackers got information from the business correspondence of the department's clients with its employees. Switzerland's federal customs office has launched a formal investigation into the incident.

According to local media reports, on June 14, 2023, the Swiss Cantonal Police and the Swiss Army also became indirect victims of this cyber attack. According to information security experts, the unprecedented attack on government agencies highlights the vulnerability of IT service providers. Since 2021, the number of cyber attacks in Switzerland has been growing, in particular on local authorities, online medical offices, media and large companies such as ABB and Swissport.

In early 2022, Switzerland approved a master plan for the development of cyber defense of the state, which provides for the allocation of up to $2.6 billion until 2025.^[1]

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