Swiss Government Hit by Third Cyber Attack in Two Weeks: DDoS Assault on Foreign Ministry

Third DDoS attack in two weeks hits Switzerland’s administration

• Switzerland’s government has suffered its third cyber attack in less than two weeks.
• Attackers launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assault on the Swiss foreign ministry.
• The previous attacks targeted the systems of the Swiss People’s Party and a Swiss financial company.
• The motivation for the attacks, and whether they are linked, is not yet known.

The Swiss government has been targeted again by hackers, with a DDoS assault on the foreign ministry. This marks the third cyber attack to hit Switzerland in under a fortnight. The previous two campaigns, which took place last week, targeted the Swiss People’s Party and an unidentified financial institution.

At this stage, however, it is not clear who is behind any of the attacks, nor what the motive is. It’s also unclear whether or not the attacks are linked in any way.

When conducting a distributed denial-of-service attack, hackers aim to overwhelm a network with traffic, sending so many requests that the system is temporarily incapacitated or crashes. These kinds of attacks are relatively easy to carry out and can be executed anonymously.

Switzerland’s federal intelligence service is known to be monitoring the situation. Officials have stated that they have already detected and taken steps to prevent further attacks. However, given the number of targets and the ease with which such attacks can be conducted, it remains to be seen whether or not the Swiss government will be able to defend itself against similar campaigns in the future.

In conclusion, Switzerland’s government has suffered its third DDoS attack in under two weeks, with the latest campaign targeting the foreign ministry. The motivation for the attacks, and whether or not they are connected, is not yet known, but Switzerland’s federal intelligence service is monitoring the situation and the government is taking steps to defend itself.

Original Article: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/swiss-government-targeted-series/