The May/June 2021 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Back and forth in the pipeline: hacking and rehacking the US fuel firm Colonial Pipeline with Ransomware as a Service
  • Meat and greed – the world’s largest meat processing company pays a hefty USD 11 million ransom after a ransomware attack
  • When Android devices catch the flu: FluBot, the banking trojan, spreads to Android devices
  • Russian cyber spies attack government and NGO networks

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

The March/April 2021 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Exploit on Exchange – vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange servers trigger a red alert
  • Learning by doing – data leaks discovered in the Swiss Army’s cyber training school
  • Rocky start(up) at Verkada – 150,000 surveillance cameras hacked
  • Refunds from the remorseful Ziggy ransomware gang
  • Data scraping on Facebook and LinkedIn: big data brings big damage

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

The January/February 2021 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Dependency confusion – when trust is too good to be true
  • Water hacking – not a new trendy sport, but a serious threat
  • Emotet: the king is dead – let there be no successor!
  • Rumours of its death are greatly exaggerated: how phishing mailers trick cutting-edge security filters with good old Morse code

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

The November/December 2020 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Choose your team carefully – hackers use fake MS Teams updates to attack networks, especially those of educational institutions
  • Audacious coronavirus relief phishing delivers an extra malware ‘bonus’ on request and creates a challenge for BEC
  • Stopping the attempt to stop online hate speech?
  • Close the gates before it’s too late: what Sneakers and the Internet of Things have in common

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

The September/October 2020 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Ransomware – the new normal of digital extortion
  • A murky supply chain – how hackers profited from Cumulus data
  • Smisherman’s Friends – a new wave of smishing attacks is washing over Europe and Switzerland

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

Growing support for open security standards in Switzerland

Open security standards are essential for a secure and resilient Internet in Switzerland and protect the privacy of Swiss Internet users. The adoption rate for Internet security standards like DNSSEC, DANE and DMARC in Switzerland is still low compared to the leading countries in Europe, but there is more and more support from the Internet industry, authorities and not for profit organizations in Switzerland.

Why are open security standards so important?

The implementation of open security standards that come out of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), reduce the attack surface of the domain/service owner. But even more important, a growing implementation rate reduces the attack surface of the internet as a whole and makes the life of cyber criminals and state actors more challenging. Open security standards provide different mechanisms to secure our communication on the internet, most important encryption and authentication. Encryption keeps our communication on the internet confidential and prevents third parties from reading our emails and tracking on which web sites users spend their time. Authentication allows us to identify and authenticate our communications partners, it makes sure that we are not on a fake website or send emails or our login credentials to a rogue email server. Continue reading “Growing support for open security standards in Switzerland”

The July/August 2020 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Aimless navigation – Garmin scrambling to regain its bearings after hacking incident
  • Hacking with a heavy hand: German intelligence is making a push to install hardware directly with internet providers and reroute internet traffic
  • A protection shield minus the protection – ECJ declares Privacy Shield unlawful
  • A night(mare) of celebrities – The ‘biggest Twitter hack of all times’ raises questions about the security of the network

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

The Mai/June 2020 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • The coronavirus: a blessing for some, a curse for others – where is IT security at with contactless payment?
  • You’ve got mail (and malware too) – serious security gap in Apple’s Mail app on iPads and iPhones now closed
  • Everything must go – ‘Shade’ hackers ‘shut down’ and publish hundreds of thousands of decryption keys
  • Swiss users targeted by cybercriminals
  • Elite targets – ETH supercomputers Euler and Leonhard (and more) hacked

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

The March/April 2020 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • The coronavirus has company – a pandemic of computer viruses
  • The ten most important rules for working securely from home
  • Online meetings – how secure are Cisco Webex and Zoom?
  • For real? Ransomware gangs develop a ‘code of honour’ in the coronavirus pandemic

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

Attacks on DNS continue, targets are also in Switzerland

Attacks on the domain name system continue

Talos, the intelligence group of CISCO reported in their blog that their monitoring shows that attacks on the domain name system (DNS) by “Sea Turtle” continue.  The attack technique used is similar than before, the actors compromise name server records to take ownership of the domain. They then provide false information to selected parties (e.g certificate authorities, mail users) which leads to the disclosure of email credentials of the targeted organisations. These credentials give initial access to the victims E-mails accounts and other resources and are a starting point for further attacks.

Victims in Switzerland

For the first time, Talos also reported victims in Switzerland.

Geographic Location of Sea Turtle Victims by Talos

While Talos didn’t disclose the targeted organizations they identified these groups as primary targets:

  • Government organizations
  • Energy companies
  • Think tanks
  • International non-governmental organizations
  • At least one airport

Continue reading “Attacks on DNS continue, targets are also in Switzerland”

The March/April 2019 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Lenin and the detectives: Mobiispy stalkerware can make highly personal data collected while monitoring children and partners publicly accessible
  • Ransomware trojan LockerGoga brings companies to their knees
  • Straight talk at Facebook: when tech giants fail to meet even minimal security requirements
  • Malware straight from the factory: when Shadow Hammer strikes the supply chain

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the English report.     »»  Download the German report.

Did you miss our previous Security Report? Click here to go to the archive.

The January/February 2019 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Company networks at serious risk: recent waves of malspam have been spreading the multifunctional trojan Emotet, targeting Windows devices in particular
  • Phishing, porn, data theft: rogue apps appearing as a new and harmful type of ‘non-sellers’ on Google Play and other app stores
  • Spy Time now also available for Apple devices – Serious security vulnerabilities allow outsiders to eavesdrop on FaceTime conversations and steal passwords from Keychain in MacOS
  • Alexa home alone, nuclear attack via Nest and a new password law in California – what happens when IoT gadgets run amok?

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the english report.      »»  Download the german report.

Did you miss our previous Security Report? Click here to go to the archive.

A new issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • An own goal and serious foul: Spanish football league’s app turns 10 million users into involuntarily spies
  • Amazon Rekognition – useful security and convenience tool or total surveillance for pennies?
  • An underestimated risk: the number of malware attacks on smartphones and tablets is exploding
  • Phishing with the stars: scammers take advantage of our celebrity obsession and the crypto craze to cause harm to users

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the english report.      »»  Download the german report.

A new issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Meltdown and Spectre: security meltdown directly from the processor
  • Leaks, fakes and cryptocurrency hacks: business models of a different kind
  • Italianitá in the smartphone – state trojan monitors smartphone users
  • Kaspersky shut out of Lithuania as well
  • Strava leaks – fitness secrets of a different kind

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the english report.      »»  Download the german report.

A new issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

Dear Reader!

A new issue of our bi-monthly SWITCH Security Report is available!

The topics covered in this report are:

  • Dresscode for apps in the Google Play Store: malicious
  • Quad9 – does it offer a data protection-friendly alternative to Google DNS?
  • Uber’s customer and driver data on a highway to the Dark Net
  • An earful of espionage: when headphones become listening devices

The Security Report is available in both English and German.

»»  Download the english report.      »»  Download the german report.