Swiss authorities are investigating a cyber attack on the IT
company Xplain, whose clients include many federal and cantonal government
departments, including the army and customs.
The online attack was revealed on Saturday by the newspaper
Le Temps, which reported that “several cantonal police forces, the Swiss army
and the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) have been indirectly affected”.
Xplain “has been the victim of a cyber attack by the PLAY
ransomware group and has therefore filed a complaint with the Berne cantonal
police,” company director Andreas Loewinger told AFP.
“They published some of the stolen data. This data was
analysed and the next steps to be taken were discussed directly with the
customers concerned”, he added.
Xplain is a Swiss company specialising in IT solutions for
homeland security.
The company, which has offices in Switzerland, Spain and
Germany, has called in the National Cyber Security Centre and investigations
are underway.
“We have not made any contact with the PLAY group, and we
will not pay any ransom”, Mr Loewinger stressed.
Xplain said it does not yet know the extent of the data
theft.
But the company, which offers its customers online applications,
said it does not store the applications and data itself.
The Federal Office of Customs and Border Security stated
that elements of correspondence with Xplain had been affected, but that “the
Office’s own data are not affected”.
The army, which was informed of the incident a few days ago,
explained that it has been using a software solution from Xplain “for several
years”, but that it is operated “via the Confederation’s own servers”.
“The civil authorities have opened a criminal procedure into
the matter,” an army spokesman told AFP.
The Federal Police also assured that, according to current
information, its “projects are not affected”. ”
As in other countries, cyber attacks on businesses,
government departments and universities are on the increase in Switzerland.
Recently, two media outlets, CH Media and NZZ, were targeted
by the Play hacker group.
