Swiss companies pushed into bankruptcy by cyber criminals

Today, it is often more dangerous not to protect yourself on the internet than when walking on the street. The pandemic only exacerbated that fact, since people had to remain at home.

The latest studies show that criminality has gone down in the streets of Switzerland, but rose online, inside its borders. Opening the wrong email, can cost hundreds of thousands of francs, to a company. Here is what you need to know.

Be worried about Offers Too Good to be True

One of the most popular ways for cyber criminals to enter into the company servers, is by sending emails with offers too good to pass on. Since the stock exchange has seen a great increase in the number of traders, during the sanitary crisis, those looking to find a way in, have used it to lure employees into their trap. Proposing to trade CFD contracts at pricing far form the competition, they intrigued and got people to open the mail. Once that was done, it was too late to go back, as criminals entered the servers of the company, without anyone knowing what was going on, until it was too late. Then, they received a request for ransom, which often was numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

Finding a platform online to trade CFDs, bitcoins or regular stock, can be challenging. But to be led into a trap, by promises of great rates, should be a warning sign by now. If you want to trade online, you need to look for a financial partner that has been there for years and can offer you the best service possible, which in the case of online trading, means to be available 24/7; anything less should not be sufficient.

International Pirates causing Havoc

Pirates tend to come from Eastern and Middle Orient countries. Most are from Russia and China, but there is a large number based in Iran, as well. Since they are territories that don’t collaborate with the Western hemisphere, in terms of legality, they are quite well protected, making it almost impossible to bring them to justice. Therefore, they have accumulated mountains of money, through their cyber criminality, over the last decade.

It has brought Swiss companies close to bankruptcy, and in some cases, it simply pushed them over. For example, in 2019, the company Swisswindows got hit by the ransomware “Ryuk”, one of the most devastating, worldwide. They had no more data, no e-mails, not even a phone line. It was too much for them to bare, as they had to close down.