The Zurich-based company United Security Providers has had a British branch office in London since February. The move to the UK marks the start of the Swiss IT security specialist's international expansion plans, according to the company.

From its new location in London, the company serves the entire UK market with its Swiss web access management solution.
United Security Providers has appointed Lincoln Hewett as Country Manager to implement its market objectives in the UK. He will be responsible for expanding the local partner network and addressing customers directly.

Michael Liebi, CEO of United Security Providers, is pleased about his company's move abroad: "The market in the UK is characterized by a high level of security awareness coupled with a great appetite for innovation, which is a promising breeding ground for USP Secure Entry Server," says Michael Liebi when asked why he opened his company's first foreign branch office in London.

The German Telekom expands the possibilities of encrypted communication: On the occasion of the CeBIT 2015 the company is showing a number of innovations in its Mobile Encryption app, a mobile encryption solution for smartphones. This enables customers to hold secure, encrypted three-way conference calls, the vendor writes. In addition, the solution can now be integrated into existing fixed-line technology worlds, it adds. This enables encrypted communication from the telephone system in the office to the cell phone and vice versa.

Until now, Telekom has made the app's source code available to interested customers. Now it is publishing the code freely on the network. Unlike other solutions, the app works in every telephone network and even without a SIM card via WLAN, as the provider emphasizes. Even in countries where phone calls over the Internet are blocked, the solution can be used for encrypted communication.

Federal Councillor Alain Berset set up the round table because there are people in Switzerland who have been affected by asbestos and who could face financial difficulties as a result of the disease.

Under the leadership of former Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger, representatives of asbestos victims, the employers' association, the trade union federation, Suva and companies that have processed asbestos met in Bern on March 12 for an initial discussion. In principle, they are prepared to participate actively in the search for an amicable solution and to discuss possible solutions in an open-ended manner.

Currently, around 120 people per year fall ill because they came into contact with asbestos years or decades ago. Around 20 to 30 of them are not entitled to the benefits of the compulsory accident insurance, but to those of the compulsory health insurance, the disability insurance and possibly the occupational pension scheme. This means that they are usually worse off financially. As a rule, they are also unable to assert any claims under liability law because of the limitation periods currently in force.

One of the first steps is to clarify how many of these people actually require action. The round table has recorded the open questions; however, they still need to be examined and discussed in greater depth. Subsequently, the discussion can begin on what the criteria for possible support might look like.

The Zurich City Police arrested a young man on Monday, March 16, 2015: He had been wanted for several robbery offenses with the help of a public search. According to police, numerous concrete tips on the wanted robber were received. In the course of the intensive investigation and search activities of detectives of the Zurich city police, the clues to a young man living in the city of Zurich became stronger. As a result, a 20-year-old Swiss man contacted the city police by telephone on March 16 and stated that he was the wanted man. He was arrested shortly afterwards and brought to the Zurich public prosecutor's office. The background and motive for the robberies are now being investigated.

The suspected perpetrator robbed a gas station in Kreis 11 in Zurich on Saturday, January 24, 2015, and stole several hundred francs. In the following six weeks, further armed robberies of gas station stores and grocery stores were committed in the city area as well as in the canton of Zurich.

The fence and wire specialist Betafence has been serving the Swiss market directly through its own sales office in Neuenhof AG since the beginning of February 2015. Previously, the company was represented in this country by Bekaert (Schweiz) AG as a sales agency. Betafence is active in Switzerland primarily with fencing products for the do-it-yourself segment, professional fencing systems, access control solutions and mobile fencing.

"Switzerland has long been an important market for Betafence," explains Martin Götz, who as Managing Director of Betafence Deutschland GmbH is also responsible for the Swiss business. "We have a nationwide presence in the do-it-yourself market through our cooperation partner Alois Dinkel AG. We continue to grow in the commercial fencing segment and we are increasingly successful with our mobile fences for temporary security of construction sites and events." With a dedicated local team, the company plans to further expand its activities in the Swiss market, Götz said.

As part of the reorganization of its activities in the D-A-CH region, the company had merged its two German sales organizations to form a joint customer service center for all product segments. Since then, the Schwalmtal site near Düsseldorf has been the D-A-CH headquarters for the entire operational business in the Perimeter Protection (professional fencing and gate systems), Gardening (do-it-yourself), Farming (agriculture), Mobile Fence, Gabions and Industry (welded mesh) divisions.

Messe Düsseldorf, organizer of A+A from October 27 to 20, 2015, among other events, has a new official representative in Switzerland: The Zug-based company MAS-Concept AG has taken over from Intermess Dörgeloh AG of Zurich as of January 1, 2015. The new representation also takes over the technical staff that was responsible for the exhibition company at Intermess Dörgeloh until the end of 2014.

Martin Dörgeloh has represented Messe Düsseldorf with his company for over 30 years. Dörgeloh cites the desire to once again seek a new challenge as the reason for giving up.

www.mas-concept.ch

Swisscom is the leading provider of managed security services in Switzerland, according to a study by the Experton Group. For the Study the analysts of the ICT consulting company examined 153 security providers. In addition to the overall victory, Swisscom also received excellent ratings in the other categories and was named "Security Leader 2015," according to the telecommunications provider.

IT security is a critical success factor for companies. But not all companies want or are able to build up their own expertise in this area. With its Managed Security Services MSS-i, Swisscom takes over IT security for companies. The Security Operations Center in Switzerland protects customer systems in real time, around the clock. In addition, all customers would benefit from shared threat intelligence optimized for Swiss needs: An attack on one system brings new insights to protect other customers from a similar attack, the provider said.

In its "Security Vendor Benchmark 2015" study, the German Experton Group evaluated all the security services of over 100 Swiss providers. Their conclusion: Swisscom was placed in the best possible leader quadrant in all the categories evaluated and was awarded the title "Security Leader 2015".

The study program is led by Marcel Blattnerwho works closely with industry and business and has carried out various Big Data projects. Blattner is particularly fascinated by the fundamental upheaval in society experienced as a result of digitization.

In the new certificate course, students learn which technologies are on the rise, what influence they have on the business world, and how new intelligent methods of data analysis are changing business processes. They learn how they can benefit from this development as decision-makers in companies.

You can find more information about the study program on the Homepage of the Zurich School of Economics

"Developments in the field of human-machine interaction have a lasting impact on our lives. Being able to actively participate in these disruptive technologies and pass on the knowledge is something of the most exciting thing" - Marcel Blattner.

Material damage was lower than in the previous year (125 million Swiss francs), according to the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). Most of the damage was caused by floods (90 million Swiss francs), mostly triggered by local thunderstorm precipitation. This shows the current evaluation of the WSL storm damage database.

As hard as the flooding and landslide events were for individual regions, villages and families, nationally, for the seventh year in a row, severe weather in 2014 caused significantly less damage than the inflation-adjusted average for the years 1972 to 2013, which is 324 million Swiss francs. Over 80% of the damage, with focal points in the Emmental and Rhine valleys, occurred in rainy July in 2014. Schangnau BE was severely affected by the thunderstorm precipitation when the Emme and its tributaries flooded on July 24. This triggered damage amounting to around 16 million Swiss francs. The Emme's water masses rolled at times right through the Bumbach district, where they flooded houses and the gymnasium, damaged machinery and cars, and destroyed water pipes. In addition, stables, farmhouses and agricultural land were affected and landslides were triggered.

The second highest local damage, amounting to around 10 to 15 million Swiss francs, occurred in Altstätten SG as a result of the thunderstorm precipitation on July 28. Due to a lot of debris and wood in the channel, the town stream overflowed and flooded houses and streets. The fire department pumped out cellars and removed debris and mud from streets and squares. In Berneck SG, too, the damage was high, according to reports. The Littenbach washed up a lot of debris and tree trunks, flooded streets and penetrated private and commercial buildings.

In the period under review, the Kaba profitability as well. The EBITDA increased by 15.2% to CHF 85.7 million (previous year: 74.4 million). As EBITDA increased at a similar rate as sales, the EBITDA margin remained the same as in the previous year at 15.5%. Kaba closed the period under review with higher net income of CHF 50.2 million (previous year: CHF 44 million). Earnings per share increased by 12.9% to CHF 13.10 (previous year: CHF 11.60).

What does the future hold? The economic environment remains challenging, especially in Europe, as the company emphasizes. Moreover, Key Systems does not expect a repeat of the demand boom from the automotive industry. However, in view of the excellent sales performance to date, Kaba is raising its guidance of 3% to 5% for this financial year and now expects to achieve organic growth of at least 5% in 2014/2015 as a whole. According to CEO Riet Cadonau, the target of an EBITDA margin at the previous year's level will be maintained, provided that the economic environment remains stable in the current financial year.

"We also call on national politicians to finally take our petition - submitted in 2009 - "Stop violence against the police" out of the drawer and to adopt effective measures" - VSPB Secretary General Max Hofmann.

The scenes that took place in Ticino are the kind you only see in action movies. These acts are incomprehensible for the Association of Swiss Police Officers (VSPB) and must be punished with all severity, as it has communicated. A strong signal is needed now, because this is the only way to stop this dangerous development.

On February 21, in Brissago, a policeman was carried away 30 meters by the vehicle of a cab driver from Locarno, when he tried to evade control because he did not have the necessary permit for this region. The policeman, who fortunately was not seriously injured, was able to leave the hospital the next day. On March 3, the municipal police of Paradiso checked and fined a vehicle parked on the sidewalk. In the process, the 26-year-old driver joined them and insulted the police officers several times. When they wanted to subject him to a personal check, he jumped angrily into his vehicle and drove backwards for a few meters. He then accelerated his vehicle and drove at full speed towards the two policemen. One policeman was able to save himself with a jump, the other was hit by the vehicle. He suffered moderate injuries and had to be treated in hospital. The driver of the vehicle was later apprehended and arrested.

The petition "Stop violence against the police" you can find on the Homepage of the VSPB view

In general, in 2014, the most frequently blocked websites by Kaspersky Parental Control were those that featured inappropriate content such as pornography, gambling, weapons and strong language, or were related to drugs, tobacco and alcohol.

Well over half (59.5%) of users worldwide were confronted with pornographic content; more than a quarter (26.6%) ended up on gambling sites; and one in five users stumbled across sites containing content about weapons or vulgar language, according to the report.

If we look at the top 10 countries where users were most frequently protected from inappropriate content and websites via the parental control function, we also see regional differences. For example, according to Kaspersky, Germany is in first place when it comes to blocking content intended for adults (e.g. pornography). On average, parental controls triggered 172 alarms per German user in this category. This is followed by China (144 alarms per user) and the USA (126 alarms per user). Content on alcohol, tobacco and drugs was one of the main threats for users in Russia, Germany, the USA, France, Brazil as well as the UK.

However, one should not rely exclusively on technological means. There are situations in which educating children and young people plays an important role - for example, with regard to potential dangers such as cyberbullying in social networks or chats.

You can find the detailed analysis in English language here.

"To protect young people from inappropriate content, we advise parents and guardians to use security solutions with parental control features. In addition, similar functions should also be fully used, for example, with search engines and applications that allow access to multimedia content."
- Holger Suhl, General Manager DACH at Kaspersky Lab.