Switzerland hit by cyberattack after Ukraine president’s visit

© Keystone / Anthony Anex

Swiss federal government websites were the victims of an online cyberattack on Wednesday. The Russian-linked hacker group ‘NoName’ claimed responsibility for the attack, citing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's attendance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, the Swiss authorities said.

According to Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the cyberattack was promptly detected and federal administration specialists took the necessary action to restore access to the websites as quickly as possible.

“An attack of this kind had been expected, and appropriate security measures were in place. [So-called] DDoS attacks are aimed at making websites unavailable. They do not result in any data being lost or compromised,” the NCSC said.

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A DDoS attack occurs when a high volume of requests are sent in order to overload online services. The websites of Swiss federal departments and several offices were affected, but not the federal government’s online portal. The attack began before 8am, an NCSC spokesperson told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

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Several pages of the federal administration were temporarily unavailable. But everything has been working again since the afternoon.

“Responsibility for the attack has once again been claimed by the hacker group ‘NoName’, which previously targeted the federal administration in June 2023. The presumed pro-Russian group cited Ukrainian President Zelensky’s attendance at the WEF annual meeting in Davos as the reason for the DDoS attack,” the NCSC said.

There was also a DDoS attack against Switzerland’s Rhaetian Railway (RhB) on Wednesday, a spokesperson confirmed. The RhB had been warned in advance by the federal government.

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The “No Name” group had previously targeted the Swiss federal administration in June 2023. At the time, Zelensky gave a speech to the Swiss parliament via video. On Monday, the Ukrainian president met members of the Swiss government and parliament in person in the Swiss capital, Bern, and on Tuesday he attended the WEF annual meeting in Davos.

According to the NCSC, the authorities had anticipated an attack and last week warned the operators of critical infrastructure, urging them to take protective measures. The newly created federal office also liases with national and international partners and operators of critical infrastructure.

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