Switzerland experiences cyberattacks as it hosts Ukraine peace conference.
In the days leading up to the Ukraine peace conference, Switzerland experienced a string of cyberattacks on government websites and organizations tied to the event. These were described as "expected initial overload attacks" by the Swiss Federal Office for Cybersecurity. Though there were temporary outages, they were deemed to be within acceptable limits.
The attacks were anticipated and the agency reiterated that there was no immediate threat. The hacking incidents, which were believed to be related to the "high-level conference," sought to disrupt operations in the digital realm and disseminate political messages.
The Ukraine peace conference will take place at the posh resort Bürgenstock after the G7 summit in Southern Italy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to attend and depart for Switzerland on Saturday, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to be present. Over 160 delegations from various nations and international groups have been invited to the conference by Switzerland.
The conference was arranged at the request of Ukraine. Kiev seeks widespread support from the international community to meet its requirements for ending the war with Russia. Moscow had made it clear that it had no intention of taking part, thus it was not issued an invitation.
Switzerland has yet to identify a suspect in connection to the most recent cyberattacks, even though Russia has been accused of such attacks by Western nations on multiple occasions.
