News Archive

The Cyber Security team of the Cyber-Defence Campus is dedicated to promoting innovative research and solutions to secure the digital landscape of today and tomorrow. The team combines in-depth expertise on challenges in various areas of cyber security, thus contributing to national resilience against evolving cyber threats.

At the year-end event held to mark the fifth anniversary of the Cyber-Defence Campus the best works and projects of the past years were awarded. The event honoured outstanding research projects and technological innovations that have contributed to strengthening cyber defence.

This year’s Cyber-Defence Campus Conference was dominated by pioneering cyber technologies. More than 300 participants from the sectors of government, industry and science were present in Bern to discuss the opportunities and challenges of quantum computing, next-gen networks and artificial intelligence (AI). Inspiring keynotes, technical presentations and an exciting panel made the Conference an unforgettable meeting point for the cyber community.

The Cyber Start-up Challenge of the Cyber-Defence Campus is held every year to find relevant start-ups and innovative technologies in the cyber area. In this year’s Cyber Start-up Challenge contest, the start-up «Patronus AI» won over the jury with a platform for automated evaluation and safeguarding of LLMs. In 2025, the start-up will be able to demonstrate its solution to the DDPS in practice in a feasibility study.

In the selection process for the Cyber Startup Challenge 2024, three start-ups – Patronus AI, QuantPi and Dynamo AI – were able to convince the jury. They will present their innovative solutions for ‹Security of Artificial Intelligence› in a pitch at the Cyber-Defence Campus Conference on 30 October 2024. This conference is organised annually by the Cyber Defence Campus of armasuisse Science and Technology.

The Cyber Defence (CYD) Campus provides partners with its expertise in an advisory capacity. With its technological knowledge, it makes an important contribution to driving forward innovations in the defence sector. The CYD Campus has collaborated with Noser Engineering on the development of an AI platform for object recognition.

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The Cyber Data Technologies (CDT) team forms an integral part of the Cyber-Defence Campus. It works on the interface between research and development in cyber data technologies. The innovative work carried out by the CDT team is a significant factor in improving the security and efficiency of the Armed Forces in cyber space.

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The emergence of new cyber technologies is also accompanied by new threats and impacts. The Cyber-Defence Campus  is publishing an Open Access study on this topic for the second time. This highlights the risks and challenges which arise through the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in cyber security. The study helps experts and decision-makers from public administration and industry in assessing the risks of use and the development of security measures.

During the Locked Shields 2024 cyber defense exercise in April this year, the Swiss team used the SCION network architecture to connect to the exercise infrastructure in Estonia. The Cyber-Defence Campus supported the Swiss team in creating the SCION connection.

The Cyber Defence Campus organized an Innovation Day for stakeholders from the Confederation and cantons on 15 May 2024. This was very well received: over 100 participants took part in the event.

In response to the increasing complexity of cyber security at the national level, the Cyber-Defence Campus was commissioned with the pilot project «Cyber Training @ Cyber-Defence Campus». The pilot project was launched in connection with the National Cyber Strategy (NCS) of the Federal Council. The aim of the project is to bring together various organizations of national importance as a community and to provide them with a well-founded range of cyber training courses. These exercises are primarily aimed at cantonal and federal authorities, police units and critical infrastructures and are designed in close cooperation with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Synergies with industry and the Swiss Armed Forces Cyber Training Range are also utilized.

The collaboration between Dr Vincent Lenders, Head of the Cyber Defence Campus and Dr David Gugelmann of Exeon Analytics, has helped to further advance the development of the Confederation's cyber security. Exeon Analytics' software aims to significantly reduce the amount of time cyber attackers can operate undetected in networks. The idea for Exeon Analytics was born during Dr Gugelmann's doctoral thesis at ETH Zurich, which was supervised by Dr Lenders.

As part of its innovation activities, the Cyber Defence Campus is investigating the potential of various smartphone security technologies. Through such investigations, the CYD Campus provides a great deal of support when it comes to cyber security in Switzerland. Among other things, one of these innovation projects focuses on security in the use of smartphones.

The Cyber-Defence Campus is currently conducting tests on quantum computing. The aim of this project is to implement the so-called Shor algorithm with open source code. The CYD Campus aims to evaluate the ongoing progress of quantum computers, particularly with regard to their ability to crack existing encryption methods.

The Cyber-Defence Campus has developed new techniques of machine learning in cooperation with the start-up giotto.ai and ETH Lausanne. Thanks to these new techniques, early-warning signals for socially disruptive events such as riots, wars or revolutions can be recognised and identified in social media.

This year's Cyber-Defence (CYD) Campus Conference will take place on 30 October 2024 at the Kursaal in Bern. The core theme of the conference is «Emerging and Disruptive Cyber Technologies: Quantum, Next-Gen Networks and AI.» The CYD Campus looks forward to welcoming experts and interested parties from government, industry and academia to this conference.

Digital technologies offer strong potential for Switzerland, but it is crucial to understand which opportunities and risks, as well as which dependencies, arise when using them. One of the goals of the DDPS’ cyber strategy is to be as technically autonomous as possible. To this end, competence in the area of cyber trend monitoring was reinforced in 2023 as part of the NCS National Cyber Strategy at the Cyber-Defence Campus. An entire team is now devoted exclusively to monitoring the digital technologies relevant for Switzerland, focusing on the cyber area.

Research in the area of cyber security is an important pillar in protection against cyber threats. The study compiled by armasuisse Science and Technology provides the first quantitative assessment of the Swiss cyber security research landscape by evaluating the full-time equivalents in various different research areas. It aims to serve as a basis for political decision-makers, universities, industry and funding organisations, to address potential imbalances in research, to create incentives for strategic areas and to identify possible blind spots.

The Cyber-Defence Campus has launched a challenge to promote relevant start-ups and innovative technologies in the cyber area. At the fourth edition of the Cyber Start-up Challenge, the company Ostorlab proved very impressive with its application scanner, which performs security analyses for mobile applications. In 2024, the company will be able to implement its solution in a feasibility study tailor-made for the Armed Forces and thus demonstrate it in a real environment for the DDPS.

The Cyber-Defence Campus organised a hackathon on the topic of attack detection in energy systems from 11 – 14 September 2023 together with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU). In addition, appropriate courses – particularly for specialists from energy supply companies – were offered this year as part of the «Cyber Training» pilot project.

The Cyber Defence Campus and the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have jointly launched a new talent programme. The aim of the CYD Proof of Concept Fellowship is to develop innovative solutions to challenges in cybersecurity and data science through applied research. Are you a future entrepreneur with an innovative idea for the Swiss cyber defence?

The Cyber-Defence (CYD) Campus, armasuisse Science and Technology, has now published its second annual report. It grants the cyber community and other interested parties a detailed insight into its activities in 2022. The report highlights various CYD Campus activities, such as its research and innovation projects, technology and market monitoring and the expansion of laboratory infrastructures.

After a successful hackathon organised by the Cyber-Defence Campus of armasuisse Science and Technology in cooperation with the Cyber Battalion 42, the discovery of hitherto unknown security vulnerabilities in industrial control systems (ICS) has now been published. The hackathon, which brought together experts from science, business and government in September 2022, served as a platform for the collaborative investigation of potential security risks.

This week’s Cyber-Defence Campus lunch seminar revolved around the topic of postquantum cryptography and its implementation challenges.

On 24. October we have officially inaugurated our new Cyber-Defence Campus office in Zurich. At the centre of the inauguration stood the connection of all three CYD Campus locations in Thun, Zurich and Lausanne through the SCION network provided by Swisscom, Sunrise GmbH, SWITCH and Anapaya Systems.