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CRIME

Swiss administration hit by cyber attack

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.

Published: 4 June 2023 09:14 CEST
Swiss administration hit by cyber attack
Photo: Noshad Ahmed/Pixabay.

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.

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CRIME

‘Your permit is invalid’: Foreigners in Switzerland warned to avoid new scam

Scores of foreign residents have received an email recently telling them their residency rights in Switzerland have been revoked.

Published: 26 April 2024 11:17 CEST
Updated: 2 May 2024 15:04 CEST
'Your permit is invalid': Foreigners in Switzerland warned to avoid new scam

A number of foreign nationals, especially in the German-speaking part of the country, have received an official-looking letter, purportedly from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) informing them that the Free Movement of People agreement between Switzerland and the EU has been nullified, and therefore “your residence permit is no longer valid.”

Faced with enquiries from concerned recipients, SEM responded that the letter is fake, advising recipients to ignore it and, above all, not to click on the QR code on the top.

“Fake letters from the SEM have been circulating since the beginning of this week,” the immigration authority said on its website as well as on X (formerly Twitter).  

“The letter has no impact on the recipient’s  residence status,” SEM added.

Fake jobs, real threats

However, this is only the latest scam perpetrated in the name of SEM.

There have been others in the past.

For instance, many foreigners have also received emails from addresses swissimmigration@consultant or eu_immigration@consultant, that pretend to be the Swiss immigration authority.

“In most cases, a fictitious job in the hotel industry is offered, with the senders demanding payment of 300 to 1,000 euros for a permit in Switzerland and for health and accident insurance,” SEM reported.

The first clue that this email doesn’t come from  SEM, which is part of Switzerland’s government, is that it is asking for payment in euros. If the scammers were smarter, they’d demand Swiss francs.

“These e-mails do not come from the SEM and should be considered as an attempt at fraud,” the agency said. 

Extortion attempt

And a few years ago, a number of foreigners received emails coming allegedly from SEM, Swiss border control authorities, or even the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).

They threatened to revoke the victim’s residence permit or even expel them from the country altogether if they didn’t pay a certain sum of money into an anonymous account.

Needless to say, no government authority would ever resort to blackmail or demand payment for such ‘services’.

So a good rule to remember (for foreigners and Swiss alike) is that if threats and pressure are involved, letters / emails / phone calls ( WhatsUp messages are more than likely scams.
 
READ ALSO: The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of 

Don’t respond

SEM as well as police urge everyone contacted by scammers, by whatever means to:

  • Ignore these messages by hanging up the phone and / or deleting emails, moving them to the Spam folder
  • Never give out your credit card number or bank account information to people you don’t know
  • If you did give your card number, contact your credit card company immediately to have the card blocked. Likewise, if you gave out your banking details, get in touch with your bank.
  • In the event of threats of extortion attempts, consider filing a criminal complaint. You can search for police stations in your area on the Police website. 
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