Exceptional safety measures on the Bürgenstock
Published: Thursday, Jun 13th 2024, 10:20
Back to Live Feed
The Ukraine conference this coming weekend at Bürgenstock NW will be characterized by extraordinary security measures. From espionage and biological attacks to cyber attacks - an overview of the threats addressed and the means used by the Confederation to combat them.
NBC THREATS: Such threats (nuclear, biological and chemical) are being considered by federal agencies. Russia has been accused several times of carrying out attacks, particularly against political opponents, using substances of the "Novichok type". This nerve agent was developed for military purposes during the Soviet era.
At the request of Keystone-SDA, the Federal Office for Civil Protection (Babs) announced that the laboratory in Spiez BE will be present on site with specialized mobile teams to identify and prevent such dangers.
As with all international conferences, the radioactivity monitoring network NADAM (Network for Automatic Dose Alerting and Measurement) with 76 measuring probes distributed throughout Switzerland will be consolidated locally with additional mobile probes. The probes are located at MeteoSwiss weather stations.
The local dose rate is transmitted to the National Alarm Center (NAZ) at 10-minute intervals. If the threshold of 1000 nano-sieverts per hour is exceeded, an alarm is triggered immediately. If necessary, the NEOC can call in various measuring equipment (measuring helicopters, measuring teams, etc.) and specialist consultants, as Babs writes further.
ATTACKING COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS: In the red zone of the summit, the Polycom system is used for unhindered communication between the emergency services. Polycom is the nationwide radio safety network of the authorities and organizations for rescue and security (BORS). This is a parallel radio system that works even if the GSM telephony fails and, according to Babs, ensures "free and seamless" communication between the emergency services on site.
SPIONAGE: Specifically, the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) considers it "likely" that members of foreign intelligence services will be present in the delegations at Lake Lucerne. It also expects that "Russian actors" will spread disinformation and propaganda. They could, for example, pass on statements in favour of Russian interests or attempt to delegitimize people who speak out against these interests, the FIS explained. The hosts of the conference, in particular the many heads of state and foreign ministers, are "interesting targets" for foreign spies.
CYBERATTACKING: This is one of the biggest fears at the federal government, whose platforms have already been attacked by Russian "hacktivists". In June 2023, for example, several federal administration websites were no longer accessible shortly before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's planned speech to the Swiss parliament.
According to the FIS and the Federal Office for Cyber Security (FOCS), no cyberattacks on critical infrastructure or cyber espionage campaigns targeting the conference have been registered to date. However, the latter concedes on request that the risk is "high". And at a press conference in Bern on Monday, President Viola Amherd admitted that "harassment" in this area has increased.
At the Bürgenstock, for example, attackers could try to provoke system failures, disrupt the conference proceedings and cause data loss and disclosure, explains the FIS.
The Bacs is particularly concerned with "Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)" attacks. These are attacks that can disable internet services. "Hacktivists" could also attempt to "defacement" websites associated with the conference.
ATTACK FROM THE AIR: At the press conference on Monday, Viola Amherd spoke of a major air defense operation. The army will deploy up to 4,000 soldiers to support the federal police and the Nidwalden cantonal police.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic