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A hacker attack has been carried out on a supplier to the Swiss Ministry of Defense. Documents from the Swiss Air Force were also stolen. The attackers are believed to be in Russia.

The hackers may have stolen tens of thousands of documents from the American company Ultra Intelligence & Communications, Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) reported on Friday. It is said to contain 30 gigabytes of documents, some of which are sensitive and classified. These ended up on the dark web and were publicly visible.

The Federal Office for Armaments Armasuisse and the Defense Group were informed by Ultra about the cyber attack, a spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Defense, Civil Protection and Sports (DDBS) told the Keystone-SDA news agency upon request. Based on the findings to date, the federal government believes no operational systems in the military were affected by the malware attack.

Million dollar contract published

According to SRF, the leaked documents contain a contract between the VBS and the American company for almost five million dollars. According to these and other documents, the DDPS purchased technology for encrypted communications from the Air Force. E-mail correspondence or receipts may also be found from which conclusions can be drawn as to when the transactions took place.

The VBS spokesperson did not comment on details. He simply said that Armasuisse had business relationships with several Ultra companies. And: Commercial data has been published to date. The investigation into the incident is still ongoing. It was initially unclear when this took place.

According to SRF, the hacker group ALPHV claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack at the end of December 2023. It is one of the most active hacker groups in the world and could originate from Russia, according to experts.

The company Ultra provides defense companies with encryption and communications technology. In addition to DDBS, customers also include the defense company Ruag, the data shows, according to SRF. Accordingly, Ultra completed assignments worldwide, including for the US Federal Police, the FBI and the North Atlantic defense alliance NATO.

The cyberattack on Ultra is the third known hack of federal data in six months. In July 2023, the ransomware attack on Swiss company Xplain and the theft of sensitive data made headlines. In November it was announced that the Swiss software company Concevis had been hacked. She also worked for the DDPS and the Tax Authorities. (sda)