PRESS RELEASE
Switzerland’s largest event dedicated entirely to cybersecurity will take place in a com-pletely virtual format on 10 and 11 March. Faced with the acceleration of cybercrime, it was essential for the organising committee to maintain the 2021 edition of the Swiss Cyber Security Days (SCSD) despite the health measures linked to the coronavirus pan-demic, as cyber threats are not taking a break. The new concept has been entirely de-signed for a virtual environment. Conferences, seminars and round tables will be acces-sible from a, latest-generation dynamic platform offering numerous opportunities for direct interaction between Internet users and speakers. The trilingual platform will be moderated throughout the year thanks to editorial input on topical issues related to cybersecurity.
The third edition of Swiss Cyber Security Days (SCSD) will be an exclusively online event to circumvent the restrictions on meeting other people implemented due to the continuing coronavirus crisis. The organising committee had anticipated the risks and prepared multi-ple versions of the event. While the in-person event held in Fribourg attracted 2,200 at-tendees in 2019 and 2,500 attendees in 2020, a virtual version of the event will be held this year. The organisers very much regret having to do away with the face-to-face interaction that made the first two SCSD outings such a superb success. But, nonetheless, they’re mak-ing the best of a bad situation and firmly believe that this completely virtual edition will allow them to achieve a number of advantages – including reaching a substantially larger audience.
An interactive platform called SCSD 365 will be officially launched at the start of February. It will remain active throughout the year, as content will regularly be posted online. The ultra-user-friendly SCSD 365 will offer outstanding opportunities for interactions such as video calls and live discussions, in addition to providing an AI-powered meet-up service that sug-gests people to meet and helps with scheduling meetings or following up on prospective contacts. A marketplace will allow brands to present their products and each exhibitor or partner will have a virtual booth at their disposal. All the talks and sessions will naturally be livestreamed – both online and on the mobile apps. Attendees will be able to interact with speakers in real time.
Widespread risks
The last 12 months have drastically changed the way we communicate and work with one another. So many people are working from home now that companies are exposed to in-creased risks, and SMEs are being targeted in particular. ‘A recent study [1] found that a quarter of Swiss SMEs have already been targeted by a cyberattack, and that more than a third have been financially impacted or suffered reputational damage. We urgently need to talk about this situation and join forces to find practical solutions,’ remarked Béat Kunz, CEO of SCSD.
Consequently, the SCSD opening day will be devoted to the topic of national security and protecting citizens and companies. The highlights will include talks by Lieutenant-General Thomas Süssli (Chief of the Swiss Armed Forces), Florian Schütz (Confederation’s Delegate for Cybersecurity) and Michael Hengartner (President of the ETH Board), plus the World Economic Forum and the Cyberpeace Institute (CPI) round tables.
Hosted by Ueli Maurer (Swiss Federal Councillor) and André Kudelski (President of Innosuisse), the SME day on 11 March will present a programme of specific talks related to inci-dent prevention and real case studies.
About Swiss Cyber Security Days
Swiss Cyber Security Days (SCSD), the Swiss cybersecurity platform, has set itself the goal of pre-senting key topics that outline the challenges that our society currently faces in the field of cy-bersecurity. It focuses on politics, the economy, education and research. Since SCSD is a national information exchange platform, all the stakeholders should find inspiration there and have the opportunity to meet with key cybersecurity experts. SCSD is based on key values such as trans-parency, knowledge transfer, discussion and open communication.
www.swisscybersecuritydays.ch
Fribourg, 21 January 2021
For more information:
Andreas Schneider
Medienverantwortlicher SCSD
Mobil: +41 76 410 09 67
E-Mail: andreas.schneider@scsd.ch
[1] Marc K. Peter, Andreas Hölzli, Andreas W. Kaelin, Karin Mändli Lerch, Patric Vifian and Nicole Wettstein: Digitalisierung, Home-Office und Cyber-Sicherheit in KMU: Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis und zur Stärkung von Schweizer KMU mit 4 – 49 Mitarbeitenden im Umfeld von Corona (COVID-19) [Digitalisation, working from home and cybersecurity in SMEs: helping to understand and strengthen Swiss SMEs employing 4 – 49 staff members during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis]. FHNW School of Business. December 2020.
