Switzerland Plans Drill for Protection Against Cyber-Attacks

The threat of attacks from cyberspace has grown by now to a level of being one of the greatest threats of public safety. Therefore the Swiss government is preparing for the worst case scenario by challenging its crisis managements groups with a drill this fall.

On February 22 the Swiss parliament and government commissioned the Federal Chancellery to hold a cyber attacks drill and through this test the response of the country. Besides governmental offices it is also planned to involve private corporations from media and industry.

September 2012 till May 2013 the Drill is planned to be held. It will have four stages. Planning and preparation is beginning now.

The cyber attack drill is part of a series of exercises to test and improve the response to anticipated dangers to the nation. 2005 a nationwide pandemic of swine flu was the scenario and in 2009 it was a nationwide power surge.

The threat of a cyber attack was also addressed by other countries for example Germany in similar exercises before.