23 million cyber attacks on the city of Bern in one year

Last year, 23 million cyber attacks were carried out on the city of Bern. Mayor Alec von Graffenried said this on Wednesday at the media conference prior to the start of this year’s Swiss Cyber ​​Security Days (SCSD).

The city’s IT infrastructure is “constantly in defense mode,” says von Graffenried. “The question is not whether we will be attacked, but: when will the first attack be successful?”

Critical infrastructure protection

Security must be continuously developed, also to protect systemically important companies such as Energie Wasser Bern. The exchange between experts on this subject is of corresponding importance.

The Swiss Cyber ​​​​Security Days, which will take place for the first time in Bern on February 20 and 21, offer the opportunity to do this after three guest appearances in Freiburg and a virtual edition. The event is about opportunities and risks in cyberspace.

“We cannot completely prevent crime, but we can increase resilience,” said SCSD President Doris Fiala. Bern’s economic director Christoph Ammann also pointed out the enormous damage caused by cybercrime. In the canton of Bern alone, damage could exceed one billion.

It is not clear from the report by the Keystone-SDA news agency whether the cyber attacks mentioned also include so-called DDoS attacks (server overload attacks) and massive automated searches for server and network vulnerabilities (port scans).

(dsc/sda)