Information sharing and community building to boost cyber-resilience in International Geneva

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Geneva, 30.11.2023 - On 30 November, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) held a 'Cyber Capacity and Community Building' event in Geneva in cooperation with the canton of Geneva and other partners. The event was aimed at boosting the cyber-resilience of international organisations and NGOs in International Geneva.

Cyber threats in general have grown in scale and complexity, which means that Swiss-based international organisations and NGOs are also affected. As many of these are politically exposed organisations, they may also be the target of cyberattacks.

Under the Foreign Policy Strategy (2020–23) and its thematic follow-up strategy, the Digital Foreign Policy Strategy (2021–24), the Federal Council set the objective of positioning Switzerland, and International Geneva in particular, as a leading location for debates on digitalisation and technology. This objective also requires Switzerland, as host country, to create optimal conditions in the digital space for the international organisations and international NGOs based here. The National Cyberstrategy (NCS) also defines measures for boosting International Geneva's cyber-resilience.

The 'Cyber Capacity and Community Building' event for International Geneva was conducted in three parts. In the first part, led by the CyberPeace Institute, the various cyber risks to which NGOs in International Geneva are exposed were presented and discussed. In the second part, Federal Cyber Security Delegate Florian Schütz took participants through a scenario-based cyber exercise involving real cyber incidents experienced in the context of humanitarian work.
 
Finally, there was a presentation of cyber security products and services provided by various partner organisations, which are available to international organisations and NGOs in Switzerland. The event enabled participants to get to know each other better and to deal more effectively with risks to which their data is exposed.

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CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland
Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55
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