Canton of Zurich establishes its own center for cyber security

With the consolidation of a comprehensive risk and security culture, the canton of Zurich now also wants to establish its own cyber security center. The protection of official data and critical infrastructure is becoming increasingly important as a quality feature of a location, the president of the government and finance director Ernst Stocker was quoted as saying in a statement from the canton. Therefore, the canton wants to strengthen the location with a broad network and targeted measures. A newly adopted cyber security strategy is also based on the recommendations of the Swiss Security Network. The new unit is affiliated with the Office for Information Technology.

Own bug bounty program

The focus is on the levels of the administration. In addition to a campaign to raise awareness of the security culture among employees, transparent cyber risk management and a bug bounty program are to be launched. Intra-administration cooperation is to be intensified in this context, so that exchanges with partners such as operators of critical infrastructures can also be cultivated. The cantonal center also plans to collaborate with the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) to provide a training platform for cities and municipalities, according to the release.

It is not only the canton of Zurich that is pursuing a bundling of competencies for its cyber defense capabilities. The canton of Zug is also currently busy with it, to establish its own cybersecurity information and contact point. An independent test institute for cyber security is to be established there.

Source: Canton of Zurich/Editorial Office