NCSC Semi-annual report: Focus on SME cyber security

Switzer­land is a country full of SMEs and home to a large variety of SMEs engaged in a wide variety of indus­tries, coming in all sizes and with the most diverse con­di­tions and require­ments. There just is no “one size fits all” solu­tion for SME cyber security.

In their semi-annual report 2022/II, the National Cyber Secu­rity Centre (NCSC) makes it clear that it is not just large cor­po­ra­tions which are tar­geted by cyber-crim­i­nals. SMEs are just as inter­esting tar­gets for their attacks. These might take the form of oppor­tunistic strikes using a scat­tergun approach or of tar­geted attacks on SMEs, some­times involving very sen­si­tive and inter­esting data records.

Even if no SME is exactly the same as the next, they all share on thing: Their fre­quently lim­ited resources don’t allow for the estab­lish­ment of a large secu­rity depart­ment. If an SME suc­ceeds in gath­ering and imple­menting cyber skills in all busi­ness seg­ments and at all man­age­rial levels without losing their eco­nom­ical power, it may just ben­efit from quite a large advan­tage in our increas­ingly dig­ital economy. Flo­rian Schütz, Bund für Cyber­sicher­heit del­e­gate, argues for tack­ling this plan together: author­i­ties, busi­ness, sci­ence and society should coop­erate to pro­vide the SME country of Switzer­land with just such an advantage.

“eBanking – but secure!” in its role as a com­pe­tence centre and imparting know-how through its train­ings, courses and newslet­ters con­tributes to this objec­tive. It is in this con­text that online courses for SMEs are held once again this year. The first part of these courses uses cur­rent inci­dents and exam­ples to illus­trate and dis­cuss today’s threats. The second part serves to dis­cuss first steps and mea­sures to take for increased infor­ma­tion secu­rity and data pro­tec­tion. This will equip you with basic knowl­edge to enable you to ask the right ques­tions of the right places inside a business.

You can obtain this knowl­edge on 27/06/2023 in our online course for SMEs. Take the first step towards increased infor­ma­tion secu­rity inside your busi­ness now and reg­ister here.

You can down­load the com­plete interim report here.