The big tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple want to invest billions in the fight against cybercrime in the near future and have promised a meeting at the White House. Joe Biden recently spoke of real dangers of a real (cyber) war, as global hacking attacks increase. The White House cannot overcome these challenges on its own, as the U.S. president reiterated before a meeting of tech bosses.

Corporations should work with supply chains to provide various initiatives and commitments to continuously improve cybercrminiality so that advanced security solutions are available more quickly.

Google, for example, is to provide the US government with more than ten billion US dollars over the next five years, which will be reinvested in specific cyber defense programs. Amazon also plans to offer various security training courses.

Source: SDA

The end of the summer vacations marked the start of a new phase in life for many young people. While some prefer to continue their education at school, others venture into professional life. According to the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, every year around 75,000 young people opt for an apprenticeship.

Apprentices are twice as likely to have an accident as other employees

The fact that the start of working life is also associated with dangers is shown by the figures from the Swiss Accident Insurance Statistics Compilation Office (SSUV). The risk of an occupational accident is practically twice as high for apprentices as for other employees. A total of 25,000 occupational accidents occur every year among apprentices, two of which are fatal.

Most of the accidents occur during classic manual work. Around 40 percent of accidents occur during manual or machine work. For example, during manual tasks such as drilling, grinding, sanding, or on machines during milling and turning. Learners are often hit by foreign objects such as splinters or chips, or they cut or scrape themselves.

Important role models have a great influence

The reasons why apprentices have accidents more often are obvious. For newcomers to the profession, everything is usually new; they are not used to handling hand tools and machines. In addition, many underestimate the dangers or overestimate their own abilities. In addition, many accidents happen because apprentices do not dare to ask questions if they are unsure. That's why vocational trainers, supervisors and employees play a key role. They serve as role models and have the task of introducing the apprentices to the company's safety culture.

In this interaction, the vocational trainer plays a key role. He or she is responsible for ensuring that learners are informed about the vital rules know that they are systematically instructed about these rules and that they are regularly repeated. This also includes the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

When it comes to practical implementation, Suva recommends that vocational trainers involve the company's safety advisor so that learners can benefit from the advisor's knowledge and experience first-hand where the dangers lurk on the construction site or in the company. Last but not least, employees can do their part to increase safety for learners by following the rules themselves and alerting entry-level workers when vital rules are being violated.

Source: Suva

The Social Pass application is used by hospitality businesses throughout Switzerland and is used to carry out the mandatory "contact tracing" required to combat Covid 19. It consists of the three system components "Social Pass", "Social Scan" and a central database: With the mobile app Social Pass (available for Android and iOS), customers record their contact data on their smartphone. When they visit a restaurant, they scan the QR code of the host establishment. The contact data, enriched with the details of the restaurant, is then automatically sent to a central database and stored there.

Unusually protracted negotiations

Besides the Identification of organizational and technical deficiencies a fact-finding investigation by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (Edoeb) revealed that the private operators granted the health authorities of the cantons of Vaud and Valais direct access to the central database and, despite a lack of justification, made it available for almost any personal queries, thereby also violating the principle of proportionality. According to media reports, the query options granted in the canton of Valais are said to have led to the processing of personal data for purposes other than those for which they were intended. On the recommendation of Edoeb, the operators have since acknowledged these deficiencies, which were still disputed in April 2021, and have also corrected them, according to their own statements.

Other recommendations concerned the completeness of information provided to users, the export of telephone numbers to the USA as part of number verification, and the configuration of the Microsoft Azure platform on which the central database is located. These recommendations were only partially acknowledged and only partially implemented. Edoeb reserves the right to carry out follow-up checks and, if necessary, to bring an action before the Federal Administrative Court.

Source: Edoeb

The report "Status 2021" of the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (BFU) provides interesting clues about non-occupational accidents. In sports, according to the 2018 projection, football claims the most injuries (80,380) and skiing the most serious injuries (3880). The lethality (number of fatalities per 10,000 injured) is particularly high for swimming (13). However, for some sports, e.g. base jumping, this value cannot be determined due to lack of data. Fatal accidents are most frequent in mountain hiking (46).

In road traffic, most people are injured while riding bicycles (34,100), as the BFU 2018 survey shows. However, motorcyclists are most often seriously injured (1540). When it comes to fatal accidents, motorists bear the brunt with 43 fatalities. Pedestrians have the highest lethality (49).

In the home and leisure sector, it is falls that are the biggest accident focus. In 2018, 287,000 falls were registered in the Swiss population that resulted in medical treatment. This resulted in 14,000 serious injuries and more than 1700 deaths. In contrast, the lethality is highest for accidents that endanger breathing (489).

Statistics for prevention work

The Status 2021, the BFU's statistical data collection, provides an overview of accident occurrences in the areas of road traffic, home and leisure, and sports. This enables the AAIB to identify priority areas of work. From this, it derives measures for prevention activities to reduce the number of serious non-occupational accidents.

Source: AAIB

Statement of the Advisory Board Cybersecurity of SATW on the new e-voting trial:

For around fifteen years, voters in various cantons have been able to vote electronically as part of a trial operation. With the revision of the underlying ordinances, the Federal Council is drawing lessons from the trial operation in order to create a new, stable basis for e-voting trial operation. SATW's Advisory Board Cybersecurity has published a statement on the revision, in which it draws on the statements made in the position paper "e-Society in Switzerland" of April 2019 and expands on them.

Well-founded opinion-forming process and high voter turnout

In its statement, the Advisory Board identifies six areas of action that are of central importance in the realignment of e-voting trial operations. Among other things, the SATW experts point out that, in addition to technical issues, particular importance should be attached to supporting voters in reaching their opinions. E-voting is the process of casting a vote electronically, which should only take place after the subject has been addressed. At the same time, the opinion-forming process must be prevented from becoming less important because voting electronically is now easier and faster.

Critically scrutinize priorities in the area of e-government

With e-voting, Switzerland's most important democratic process is to be digitized. In SATW's view, neither the approaches being pursued nor the public discussion have reached a level of maturity that would allow the most important pillar of direct democracy to be built upon them. The Advisory Board therefore recommends that priorities in the area of e-government be critically scrutinized and that the focus be placed first on projects whose implementation is of greater importance, urgency or direct benefit to Switzerland. One example of this is the elimination of fundamental security risks in critical infrastructures.

Traceability

SATW is convinced that trust and transparency must be central from the outset. This also means that it must be comprehensible to non-experts how the process works: Each vote is counted correctly and exactly once, while at the same time maintaining the secrecy of the ballot. Questions about the ease with which citizens can verify the process must be addressed with particular care. Consideration must also be given to what happens if, on the day after a vote, even the suspicion of manipulation is expressed and a flood of complaints about voting rights is received. If the relevant processes are not defined for this or are not designed to be efficient enough, the e-voting system could be paralyzed for some time as a result.

Source: SATW

Have a small tunable infrared spectrometer for rapid detection of spoiled meat or toxic gases Researchers at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley develops. The device is so compact that it could be integrated into next-generation smartphones.

Key Black Phosphorus

When gases are irradiated with infrared light, they absorb some of the light frequencies. From what remains, the composition of the gas can be determined. If infrared light of different frequencies is used, different gases become identifiable. "To achieve this, we deposited a thin layer of black phosphorus crystals on a flexible substrate," says Kenneth Crozier of the University of Melbourne.

Depending on their bending state, the phosphor crystals emit infrared light of different frequencies that can be matched to the suspected gas - spoiled meat, leather and methane, which can be produced in coal mines, can all be detected at different frequencies. "We actually achieve strong frequency changes when we bend the tiny platelet," adds Ali Javey of the University of California at Berkeley.

For meat eaters and firefighters

According to the scientists, such a device could be integrated into a refrigerator. It would trigger an alarm if it detected the gases that are typical of spoiled meat. It could also be sent over a fire with a drone to check whether toxic gases are produced that would threaten the firefighting team.

(pressetext.com)

"The most common reason why surgeons in industrialized countries have to amputate someone's foot or leg is inadequate blood supply to muscles in diabetes patients," says Katrien De Bock. She is a professor of exercise and health at ETH Zurich and is working with her team to investigate how such circulatory disorders in muscles can be treated and how blood vessels are formed anew. It is well known that exercise and sport stimulate blood vessel formation. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which this occurs are poorly understood. "If we understand these mechanisms, we can work toward specifically promoting blood supply to muscles in patients," says the ETH professor.

In mice and in cell culture of human cells, De Bock and her colleagues have now investigated how the fine blood vessel capillaries are formed in muscles of healthy individuals. They have targeted the vessel wall cells (endothelial cells) and discovered that there are two types of endothelial cells that differ with respect to a molecular marker called ATF4. Cells with low levels of ATF4 are mainly found in capillaries, which supply so-called white muscle fibers. And cells with a lot of ATF4 are mainly part of the blood vessels near red muscle fibers, the researchers found.

"Ready to go"

The scientists further showed that physical exercise stimulates endothelial cells with high ATF4 (i.e., those in red muscle fibers) to divide, resulting in the formation of new blood vessel capillaries. Cells with little ATF4, on the other hand, do not respond directly to exercise. "The endothelial cells with a lot of ATF4 are sort of on standby," De Bock says. ATF4 is a regulatory protein inside cells. Cells with this protein are ready to respond quickly to the appropriate stimulus: As soon as a person - or in our case a mouse - exercises, these cells take up more amino acids and invest in increased formation of DNA and proteins and in the rapid proliferation of cells. This ultimately leads to the formation of new vessels.

It is not yet known why these "ready to go" vascular wall cells are mainly located near the red muscle fibers. The researchers would like to investigate this next. In addition, the scientists would like to use the findings to develop therapies to stimulate the growth of muscular blood vessels in diabetics, patients with arterial occlusive diseases or with transplanted organs.

Source: ETH News

In terms of recreational safety, it is also important to take various precautions during activities such as swimming, running, hiking and cycling. Often, streams and rivers are inviting places to cool off. River swimming during the lunch break or after work is also a popular popular sport. However, according to Suva, injuries occur time and again. One-third of all injuries related to flowing water involve the lower legs, ankles, feet, torso, back and buttocks, and about 10 percent often involve the nikes, hands and wrists. It is true that the majority of injuries are superficial in nature. A third of these injuries are abrasions, bruises. 28 percent involve sprains and strains. Broken bones and wounds were each reported in 15 percent of cases. In 50 percent of the cases, the insured slipped. Most of the time, they trip or fall while getting in and out of the water, or accidents occur when insured persons bump into something.

According to Suva, these accidents cost 14 million Swiss francs annually. In any case, swimming in the river is only for advanced swimmers, Suva writes in a statement. Those who swim with a buoy as a buoyancy aid remain visible and in the air, says Samuli Aegerter, Suva's recreational safety expert.

Source: Suva

Ransomware attacks occur again and again. A few weeks ago, the comparison portal "Comparis" and a track-laying machine company in western Switzerland came under attack. Ransoms are usually extorted for the encrypted data. Hacker groups can sometimes display particularly aggressive behavior and, if negotiations are hesitant, do not shy away from publishing internal company data on the darknet. But what if it really hits a company? Bitdefender has seven pieces of advice for dealing with such a situation:

1. quickly isolate devices.
Ransomware should not be able to spread further than it already has. Therefore, administrators should isolate affected systems from the network as soon as possible. Especially when cleaning up after the ransomware attack, it helps to prevent the extortionate malware from spreading further.

2. understand the attack vector.
Once the affected devices are isolated, it is important to understand how the incident could have occurred. On the one hand, this helps to manage the incident. It also provides valuable lessons for the future. So it's important to find out: Who was Patient Zero on the network?

3. back up and check backups. 
Applications and servers can be set up again, but data is irreplaceable. Without backups, it is no longer possible to secure them. Therefore, the measure is to take them off the network first. Attackers specifically look for backups as part of their attack. If they are still online, there is a risk that they will be included in the attack. Of course, it is even better to keep offline backups in a physically separate location from the outset. The 3-2-1 rule of backup is a given, especially for backing up data against extortionist attacks. This means that a ransomware demand may come to nothing - at least as far as the data is concerned. Instead, IT administrators can take care of rebuilding the systems.

4. stop projects and planned tasks. 
A ransomware attack is an emergency and requires the pooling of all resources. Rebuilding the IT architecture, such as migrations to new environments, or installing new applications and servers should be stopped immediately. Such projects could help the malware spread further. It is equally important to stop scheduled tasks, such as backups. Because in the course of them, the extortionate malware can spread further.

Quarantine potentially compromised areas. 
In general, no possibility should be ruled out immediately after an attack and all potentially affected parts of the infrastructure should be quarantined. This means taking everything offline and examining it individually before it can be used again.

6. after the attack is before the attack: change passwords. 
Forewarned is forearmed. At the beginning of an incident, it is often not completely clear how it could have happened. Was it just a simple attack? Or was it a complex attack that was possible because the attacker had captured authentication data? If this was the case, he can always try again. It therefore makes sense to change the passwords of system-critical user accounts in any case.

7. don't panic - plan and practice critical safety situations
If the worst comes to the worst, IT administration will be under a lot of pressure - and there is therefore a risk of making the wrong decision in this pressure situation. To prevent this as far as possible, IT departments should prepare for an emergency. Ideally, those responsible for security should have defined processes. After all, it is precisely in an emergency that companies need a blueprint so that no sensible measures are forgotten. These processes should also be practiced regularly, for example in simulated "red and blue team testing". If employees know that there is a plan that takes effect in the event of an emergency and that this plan has been practiced, the risk of acting incorrectly under pressure is minimized.

Source: Bitdefender

Aerospace engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an algorithm that helps drones find the fastest route around obstacles without crashing. The new algorithm combines simulations of a drone flying through a virtual obstacle course with data from experiments of a real drone flying through the same course in a real environment.

Up to 20 percent faster

The researchers found that a drone trained with their algorithm flew up to 20 percent faster through a simple obstacle course than a drone trained with conventional planning algorithms. Interestingly, the drone temporarily fell behind its competitors because in some cases the algorithm decided to let it fly slower to safely negotiate a tricky turn or to conserve energy. But eventually it accelerated again and finished the race as the winner.

"At high speeds, aerodynamics is so complicated that it's hard to simulate. That's why we also rely on real-world experiments," said MIT researcher Ezra Tal. "Algorithms of this type are a very valuable step in building drones that can navigate very quickly through complex environments," adds colleague Sertac Karaman. "We hope to push the boundaries so that they can fly as fast as their physical limitations allow."

More than a technical gimmick

The project is more than just a technical gimmick. In real-life operations, such as the search for missing persons after a natural disaster or forest fire, it is essential that drones reach the scene very quickly. Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a similar algorithm, but on a different scientific basis.

Source: Press release

Currently, almost half of the Swiss population is fully vaccinated. However, since July 11, 2021, the curve of first-time vaccinations has hardly increased, while the cantons have sufficient vaccination capacities. In a statement, the Federal Council assumes that all persons willing to be vaccinated have been vaccinated. In accordance with its three-phase model (protection, stabilization, normalization), it was therefore decided to initiate the normalization phase, which is envisaged when all willing vaccinees have been vaccinated.

Due to the uncertain epidemiological situation (negative dynamics, vacation returns, delta variant) and because an overload of hospital structures cannot be ruled out, the Federal Council has decided to maintain the limited and well-accepted set of measures (e.g. masks indoors and in public transport, certificates for large events and clubs). It will reassess the situation at its meeting on September 1, 2021 and, if necessary, adjust the measures when the effects of the vacation return are more apparent.

In this new phase, the Federal Council is placing greater emphasis on personal responsibility. Since everyone in Switzerland will be confronted with Covid-19 sooner or later, it is assumed that an increase in infections, hospitalizations and deaths cannot be avoided. For the population, therefore, vaccination remains the most effective means of protecting against covid-19 infection and serious complications, he said. The Federal Council is calling on people who have not yet been vaccinated to get vaccinated as soon as possible. The cantons must therefore ensure that the population can continue to be vaccinated at a low threshold. The federal government will launch a new information campaign on August 16, 2021.

The Federal Council, on the other hand, proposes that from October 1, 2021, neither tests for persons without symptoms (test for personal reasons), nor the five self-tests per month for non-vaccinated and recovered persons will be financed, with the exception of tests for children up to 12 years and persons who cannot be vaccinated: Non-vaccinated and non-recovered individuals who wish to participate in a certifiable event must pay for the test themselves or be vaccinated in the meantime beginning October 1, 2021.

Source: The Federal Council

© Depositphotos, Olivier26

A clear majority (70%) of the population wants to reduce CO₂-emissions. Mobility plays an important role in this. 57 percent of respondents would like to see more electric cars and 63 percent would like to see a general reduction in private motorized transport - for example, through more home offices or car sharing. 68 percent are in favor of shifting heavy goods traffic from road to rail. This is the result of a representative survey conducted by the auditing and consulting firm Deloitte at the beginning of May 2021 among 1,501 people living in Switzerland.

Innovation as a driver for CO₂-Reduction

Even though more than half (53%) of the respondents are in favor of compensation measures: The vote on CO₂-Law has clearly shown that practical implementation will be more difficult, according to the Deloitte media release. Therefore, it is not surprising that a much higher proportion (71%) are in favor of increased innovation and technological progress to reduce greenhouse gases, it said. "Following the rejection of the CO₂-law, the existing challenges will not go away," says Reto Savoia, CEO of Deloitte Switzerland. "The no to the CO₂-However, our survey shows that the "No" to the Climate Protection Act was not a "No" to climate protection. Switzerland must continue to do everything in its power to lead the way in climate protection. With our world-leading universities and many companies successful in environmental technologies, Switzerland is in a top position to ensure effective climate protection. We have a real opportunity here to position ourselves even better on the global market in the longer term," says Savoia. 

Employers should promote e-mobility

In order for Switzerland to achieve the reduction in emissions set out in the Paris Climate Agreement, it needs, among other things, more sustainable mobility options. According to the survey, employers also have a role to play here: 76 percent of respondents want companies to support their employees with public transport passes. 59 percent want employers to actively promote e-mobility and, for example, offer e-cars as company cars. 56 percent want employers to financially support cycling. "Our survey has shown that a large majority of the population also wants employers to actively support CO₂-reduction," says Rolf Brügger, Director Government & Public Services at Deloitte Switzerland. "Promoting e-mobility as broadly as possible makes sense. The state can help to quickly improve the infrastructure for charging electric cars with targeted framework conditions. Specific incentives for companies that support their employees' efforts to reduce CO₂-reduction, but also measures that make e-mobility more accessible to a broader population."

Source: Deloitte

Detailed information on the study can be found here:

deloitte-ch-sustainable-decarbonization