Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Hackers publish Baden city data on darknet

The city of Baden in northern Switzerland.
According to NZZ, a backup copy of Baden's central database was hacked. The city authorities have not received a ransom demand. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Hackers have published large amounts of data from the Swiss city of Baden on the darknet, it has been confirmed.

NZZ online first reported the data theft on Monday. Data from the city of Baden, located in northern Switzerland, has been available for download on a hacker forum since last week, including tables with the names and addresses of residents.

In addition to partially public data, such as the city’s budget from 2013 to 2023, the NZZ reported the release of sensitive information, such as parts of accounts and a list of people who have been cremated.

+ Explainer: how vulnerable is Switzerland to cyber-attacks?

“The data leak probably comes from an older security gap. We have closed various security gaps and taken security measures in the last few months,” said Nicole Meier Doka, a spokesperson for the city of Baden.

According to NZZ, a back-up copy of the city’s central database was hacked. The city authorities have not received a ransom demand.

+ Hackers steal Swiss police and customs data

Investigations are currently underway into how the hackers got the data, Meier said. It remains unclear whether data from the city of Aarau is also affected. In 2019, the two largest cities in Aargau merged their IT systems.

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

22 percent women in top management

More

Just 22% of top Swiss managers are women

This content was published on The majority of high level decisions in Swiss companies remains in the hands of men, says the latest Gender Intelligence Report.

Read more: Just 22% of top Swiss managers are women
Adapted Swiss borders with France and Italy

More

Glacier melt causes changes to Swiss-Italian border

This content was published on Switzerland has adapted its borders with Italy and France. The changes with Italy are linked to melting glaciers, while those with France concern a tram line and rivers in the Geneva region.

Read more: Glacier melt causes changes to Swiss-Italian border
Almost one in five tunnels shows moderate damage

More

Report: one in five Swiss tunnels damaged, but safe

This content was published on According to Switzerland's Federal Roads Office (Astra), national roads are in good condition overall. Almost one in five tunnels has moderate damage but they are safe, it said on Thursday.

Read more: Report: one in five Swiss tunnels damaged, but safe

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

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

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