The National Cybersecurity Center of Switzerland (NCSC) has released a report on the investigation of data leakage following a cyber attack involving the XPLain program. This incident resulted in the compromise of thousands of confidential files belonging to the federal government.
XPLain is a Swiss provider of technologies and software solutions used by various government departments, administrative units, and even the armed forces of the country. The cyber attack took place on May 23, 2023.
The attackers managed to obtain documents containing sensitive information and proceeded to publish the stolen data on their website on the Darknet in early June. The Swiss government promptly initiated an investigation and confirmed that among the leaked data, there may be documents associated with the Federal Administration of Switzerland.
On March 7, authorities revealed that as a result of the breach, a total of 65,000 government documents were exposed. The breakdown of the leaked data is as follows:
- Approximately 5% (65,000 documents) of the 1.3 million stolen files are linked to the Federal Administration.
- The bulk of the leaked data (95%) is related to the administrative units of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Police (FDJP).
- The Ministry of Defense, Protection of the Population, and Sports (DDPS) was impacted to a lesser extent, with slightly over 3% of the leaked data.