Premiere of the Smidex Suisse Exposyum

Very small, but very fine - that's how you could describe the premiere of the Smidex Suisse Exposyumas it is called, in a nutshell. The event was dominated by the topic of cyber security, which is perhaps not so wrong in times of "total networking" of all systems. And because the management of information security only succeeds when responsible persons inform themselves and exchange information, Smidex offered a corresponding platform. It is simply incomprehensible why many company managers still treat the topic stepmotherly, as various exhibitors reported, but also several speakers showed with practical examples.

The figures speak for themselves: around 41 percent of Swiss SMEs have already been the victims of cyber attacks. Small business owners who believe that their data is of less interest to cybercriminals are mistaken. Such companies are also attractive targets for cybercriminals for two reasons: First, to extort ransom money with the help of ransomware, and second, to use them as a gateway for attacks on larger companies that work with these SMEs.

Over 30 presentations

The new security platform was opened by Rainer Maria Salzgeber (moderator), Nicolas Bürer (digitalswitzerland) and Nathalie Gratzer (project manager for the implementation of the national strategy to protect Switzerland against cyber risks at the Federal Office for National Economic Supply).

In over 30 presentations, participants were informed about the current state of cybersecurity not only by CSIOs and CIOs, but also by C-level responsible parties in SMEs. Using a recent survey, for example, Candid Wüest (VP Cyber Protection Research at Acronis) showed where companies are currently struggling the most and how this relates to merging cyberattacks. And of course, ethical hackers played an important role in the conference. Sandro Nafzger (CEO & Partner of Bug Bounty Switzerland GmbH) gave an exciting talk explaining why collaboration is key to the success of any digital transformation.

ICT minimum standard also for companies

Nathalie Gratzer of the Federal Office of National Economic Supply presented the federal government's cybersecurity recommendations for the critical infrastructure sector (ICT minimum standard). Minimum standards, which take into account the specifics of the individual sectors, now exist for various industries such as health care, water supply, food industry, gas supply and others.

The ICT minimum standard serves as a recommendation and possible guideline for improving ICT resilience, as Gratzer emphasized. At Smidex, she pointed out that the standard is in principle also applicable to any company or organization and is freely available.  (Smidex / rs)

The organizer DeltaBlue AG is planning the next edition of Smidex Suisse Exposym in autumn 2022 in an international network.