Under incessant fire from hackers, the canton of Vaud organizes its defenses

Published on December 5, 2024 at 7:48 p.m. / Modified on December 6, 2024 at 09:05.

3 mins. reading

It was more than 3 years ago already. In August 2021, Time revealed the extent of the computer hacking suffered by the town of Rolle, with the data of its 5,000 inhabitants stolen and posted online on the darkweb. Since then, several municipalities in the canton have suffered cyberattacks: there was Montreux, Bex and recently Yverdon. To our knowledge, no other French-speaking canton has seen its public administrations be so targeted by computer hackers. “It may be due to the size of our canton. And at the same time, don’t forget that at the end of September we suffered a violent denial of service attack [saturation des sites web, ndlr]», Underlines Marc Barbezat, cybersecurity delegate and director of information systems security.

Vaud is a prime target. But the canton is trying to defend itself. This Thursday, he organized a vast simulation exercise to train to ward off these attacks. Around a hundred stakeholders, including dozens of municipalities, the CHUV, the Cantonal Insurance Establishment and even cantonal partners took part all morning. “At the cantonal level, we regularly organize simulations of phishingto make employees aware of attempted intrusions into our systems. On Thursday, we went much further by simulating a massive cyberattack,” continues Marc Barbezat.

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