Cyber risks: Federal Council launches follow-up strategy
The first national strategy to protect Switzerland against cyber risks (NCS) will soon be history. In view of the continuing increase in cyber threats, the Federal Council has decided to commission the development of a successor strategy.
Protection against cyber risks is very important, as the increasing number of incidents at home and abroad clearly shows. In addition to traditional cybercrime, attacks are increasingly directed against states and critical infrastructures. This fact and the fact that cyber attacks are also being used for political purposes mean that the threat to Switzerland from cyber risks will also continue to increase in the future.
Threat remains
To counter the threat, the Federal Council adopted the first National Strategy for the Protection of Switzerland against Cyber Risks (NCS) in 2012 for the years 2012-2017. The implementation of this strategy ends on schedule this year. The strategy adopted today by the Federal Council Annual Report 2016 on the implementation status of the NCS shows that 15 of the 16 measures have already been successfully completed today.
As a basis for deciding whether and how the NCS will be continued in the future, the Federal Council has conducted a Effectiveness Review of the implementation to date and took note of it today. The results show that the strategic orientation of the NCS was chosen correctly and that the decentralized but closely coordinated implementation of the NCS is working well overall. In all areas, it has been possible to establish functioning processes and structures and to build up the necessary specialist knowledge, so that Switzerland is better prepared for cyber risks today than it was in 2012. At the same time, it is clear that the NCS has only laid a foundation and that protection against cyber risks must be further expanded. The strengthened defense provided by the NCS measures contrasts with an intensified threat situation and increasing networking.
Succession strategy 2018-2023
Based on this assessment of the work carried out to date and the analysis of the current threat situation, the Federal Council has commissioned the Federal IT Steering Unit (FITSU) to draw up a successor strategy for 2018-2023 in collaboration with the agencies concerned and to submit it to the Federal Council by the end of the year. It is to use the structures and processes that have been created to strengthen protection against cyber risks in the long term. The Federal Council has decided to extend indefinitely the funding for the previous 30 NCS posts for the continuation and expansion of protection against cyber risks in the various departments.
Media release Federal Council
