Data leaks, crimeware and attacks on industrial control systems
The just published 26th semi-annual report of MROS Melani deals with the most important cyber incidents of the second half of 2017 in Switzerland and abroad. Among other things, the focus is on the widespread use of crimeware and attacks on industrial control systems in the medical technology sector.
In October 2017, the Internet company "Yahoo!" had to admit that the data of all users of this service had been affected in a hacker attack in 2013. This means that more than 3 billion data records are likely to have been leaked. The incident is considered the largest data leak worldwide to date. In Switzerland, data leaks in the second half of 2017 were the main cause of concern. Swisscom with 800,000 data records and that of "dvd-shop.ch" with 70,000 data records. In the main topic of the current semi-annual report, the Reporting and Analysis Center for Information Assurance (Melani), among other things, the effects of such data leaks, aspects of data protection law, and the question of how data subjects should be informed.
Crimeware still very active
Also in the second half of 2017 the use of crimeware, especially encryption and e-banking Trojans, was widespread. The data from Melani/GovCERT shows that "Downadup", also known as "Conficker", is still among the most widespread malware in Switzerland, even though a patch has been available for the vulnerability it exploits for more than ten years.
Attacks on industrial control systems
Industrial control systems are not only at the heart of numerous critical infrastructures such as energy supply, but also of numerous medical devices such as MRI scanners or pacemakers. In extreme cases, the failure of such devices can be life-threatening for the patient. This semi-annual report deals with the challenges surrounding security updates for medical technology devices and addresses potential security vulnerabilities in pacemakers.
Press release Melani
