Twice as many ransomware incidents in Switzerland

In the first half of 2021, the National Center for Cybersecurity (NCSC) continued to receive a wide variety of reports on forms of fraud. Incidents of CEO fraud, fake support calls and classified ad fraud were reported very frequently. In total, the NCSC received 10,234 reports, almost twice as many as in the previous year.

The National Center attributes the increase to the introduction of a reporting form, but also to a larger wave of sextortion or phishing attacks.

Doubling of ransomware attacks

Incidents involving encryption Trojans have also increased sharply. The number of ransomware attacks tripled from 32 cases in the first half of 2020 to 94. The increase can be attributed to the "Qlocker" ransomware, which repeatedly targeted private individuals. Network storage systems from QNAP were particularly affected.

What is striking is that the number of phishing incidents has increased almost fivefold since the first semester of 2020. The approximately 2439 reports primarily involve emails and text messages with fake package notifications, according to the NCSC.

Security vulnerability reporting platform

Vulnerabilities in hardware and software are also welcome targets for attack if vulnerable components are not updated promptly with patches. For example, security vulnerabilities on MS Exchange servers as well as "Sonic Wall", "PrintNightmare" and "QNAP NAS" are just a few examples that are highlighted in the current focus topic.

The NCSC is currently expanding its vulnerability management. Security vulnerabilities can now be disclosed in a coordinated manner on one platform ("Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure"). In order to detect security vulnerabilities, the NCSC has accompanied the test phase of the infrastructure for the Covid certificate and an initial pilot program for "Bug Bounty" in the first half of 2021.

Source: NCSC