Top data protection official starts preliminary investigation into data theft at the Basel company Concevis

Following a new hacker attack on federal government data, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner has launched a preliminary investigation. The attacked software supplier Concevis, who works for the federal government, had already filed a criminal complaint with the Basel-Stadt public prosecutor’s office.

The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) launched a preliminary investigation on Monday due to indications of possible violations of data protection regulations, it was said on Wednesday in response to a query from the Keystone-SDA news agency.

The FDPIC has first indications of a possible violation of data protection regulations. It is now being checked whether the conditions for a formal investigation have been met.

Devastating ransomware attack

The National Center for Cybersecurity (NCSC) reported the data theft on Tuesday. Current findings indicate older operational data was held by third-party federal service providers, it said. It is currently considered unlikely that federal systems themselves have been hacked. There is no evidence of this.

Immediately before that, software supplier Concevis announced that the company had fallen victim to a so-called ransomware attack on November 4 and 5.

In such attacks, hackers first steal data and then attempt to encrypt the victim’s IT systems with malware. They then demand ransom from those affected. According to the Keystone-SDA news agency, Concevis refused to make such a payment to the cybercriminals.

The company’s website states:

(dsc/sda)