According to the Reporting and Analysis Center for Information Security (MELANIE), there have never been as many phishing e-mails or identity thefts as in 2017. However, cyber criminals are using increasingly perfidious methods to harm private consumers and companies. For example, they pose as tax or government officials in order to obtain sensitive data.

A "brazen" e-mail purporting to come from the Federal Tax Administration recently made the rounds. The scammers wrote something about a fictitious tax refund and asked recipients to fill out an attached document. When the file was opened, malware was automatically installed - both on Windows computers and on Macs! Of course, there was no tax refund.

Swiss addresses in our sights

In February, a mail - at first glance from Swisscom - was circulating in which cyber criminals used a similar tactic. The fake bill was marked with the button "View bill", which referred to a prepared website. On this website, the victims were subsequently infected with malware.

According to MELANI, invitations to court hearings or messages from the cantonal police are also used as bait. "The aim of the attackers is to take the user by surprise, arouse his curiosity or scare him, in order to then tempt him into an ill-considered action," the federal agency said.

Checklist against viruses, worms and Trojan horses

E-mail is one of the most popular means of communication. How to protect yourself when it comes to e-mailing and what affected companies should do can be answered by means of this checklist. However, most electronic malware gets onto your computer via e-mail attachments. Careful handling of e-mails contributes significantly to the security of your data and your computer.

The following measures protect you against viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spam and hoaxes:

Beware of e-mails with unknown sender

Do not trust e-mails whose sender's address you do not know. In this case, do not open any attached documents or programs and do not select any links specified in them.

Pay attention to the trustworthiness of the sources

Only open files or programs from trusted sources and only after first checking them with up-to-date antivirus software.

Be careful with file names with two endings

Do not open email attachments that have two extensions (e.g. picture.bmp.vbs). Do not be fooled by the icon of such a file. In Windows Explorer, deactivate the option "Hide extensions for known file types" or "Hide file extensions for known file types".

Software update of the e-mail program

E-mail programs can also have security vulnerabilities. Regularly check whether there is a software update for your e-mail program and install it.

Do not reply to spam

General: Maintain cautious use of email address. Share your email address with as few people as necessary and use it only for important correspondence.

Create a second e-mail address

For filling out web forms, subscribing to newsletters, entries in guest books, etc., it is recommended to use a second e-mail address. This can be requested free of charge from various providers. If this address is affected by spam, it can be deleted and replaced.

Careful, careful, careful ...

If spam is replied to, the sender knows that the email address is valid and will continue to send spam. Spam with an "unsubscribe" option should also be treated with caution. This promises that by sending an e-mail with certain content, you will be removed from the distribution list.

In this context, automatic reply emails in case of vacation absence should also be considered. They should only be activated for known addresses.

Checklist of companies whose names have been misused as senders:

If your company name is misused for fraud e-mails, point out clearly on the home page that your company is misused as a sender for malware e-mails. Give customers your recommendation on how they should behave.

• Alert your customers to the fraud attempts by means of a regular newsletter or directly.
• Adhere to the following basic rules when communicating with customers via e-mail and communicate them to them:
• Use links sparingly in e-mails and link only to your own domain. If possible, use links to pages secured by encryption (https) and inform the recipient of this.
• Do not use hidden links, always make the links visible to the user.
• Do not link to websites that require username and password or other input.
• Address customers by first and last name, if this information is available.
• Sending important account information in writing by letter - especially in the financial sector.

(Source: MELANI, May 2017)

 

If you have further specific questions about phising, please contact the Reporting and Analysis Center for Information Assurance MELANI directly - Site

 

 

 

 

 

Women are becoming more confident, says Universum Talent Research. Young female IT professionals, for example, prefer vertical training opportunities: Training, creativity, innovation, flexibility, an attractive base salary and "recently" a high income. The study reveals a thesis: the so-called "soft factors" are becoming less and less relevant for women, while hard factors are gaining in importance.

Change in the "soft factors

Compared to last year, women are less interested in the "soft factors". Thus, the attribute "respect for one's co-workers" has fallen out of the top 10 preferences of the survey (last year #5). The importance of "a creative and dynamic work environment" has also dropped. Also interesting: "support for gender equality" is not chosen at all, already last year not.

Salary and career opportunities" are significantly more important to female students. Women attach importance to an employer "paying for their future education" (not even in the top 10 for men) and an "attractive basic salary" is also important to them. So women have had enough of the gender gap and demand more.

Less interesting to them is the prospect of "a high income in the future," which is definitely important to men (#4). A "good reference for future career" is very important to both men and women, but "diverse work tasks" in the job are even more important to women.

 Different preferences

"Women focus more on the first job and weight current preferences slightly higher than future preferences. This could be related to the fact that women are out of patience and want to have a career before starting a family and thus have less patience," Marty said.

"Professional training and development" is more important to female students (#5) than male students (#9). "Diverse work assignments" is also more important to female students (#1) than to male students (#7).

"Women have probably realized that they can demand more and also have to contribute to the issue of equality themselves. So they are focusing more on the hard factors around salary, promotion opportunities, further training and less on soft factors such as respect among colleagues or a creative and dynamic working environment when choosing an employer," says Leo Marty, Managing Director Switzerland & Austria at Universum.

 Taking a closer look at the top 10 preferences, one observes that for men "salary & promotion opportunities" are still somewhat more important and primarily occupy the ranks 1-4 and for women the ranks 6-8.

Women are idealists and harmonizers ...

Among Swiss female students, the career profile of Idealists is particularly pronounced at 18% (men 9%) and that of Harmonizers at 17% (men 11%).

So-called harmonizers attach great importance to loyalty, a sense of responsibility and team spirit. Idealists want to deliver feasible solutions that serve a good purpose. At the same time, they want to be valued and respected.

Idealists and harmonizers increase over the course of a career. Among Swiss professionals with an academic background, 12% of working men and 23% of working women are Idealists. Harmonizers account for 13% of working men and 21% of working women in Switzerland.

IT-ers now primarily demand (#1) "professional training & continuing education" (last year #5). "Flexible working conditions", a "high income in the future" and "payment for future training" are all three new in the top 10 preferences of IT-ers. IT students also care about "innovation" and "attractive & interesting products & services." "Innovation" is even more important than an attractive base salary. Or rather, innovation is not a matter of course for Swiss IT people, but a good salary is. This is a good sign for the booming start-up scene, which is also desperately looking for IT people, but is not solvent.

You can find out more about the "Universum Talent Research" study on the site of universumglobal.com

Researchers at the London School of Economics and Political Science surveyed people in 150 countries for a study on their "happiness. For example, the study emphasized that the unemployed would remain unhappy long after becoming unemployed, even though they had found a new job.

Compensating wage difference

The researchers were unable to prove the so-called "compensating wage difference". In classical economic theory, it is assumed that people are equally happy in different jobs according to their abilities. If a person has to take a job that is not as satisfying, he or she should be paid accordingly and thus be equally happy again in the end. Apparently, according to the researchers, this effect does not exist.

Other corresponding responses about what constitutes happiness in the workplace were recently analyzed. Here are the key findings:

Have work

The importance of a job goes far beyond the pay packet. More important are social networking, status, a daily structure and goals in life.

According to the study, a high unemployment rate also influences the happiness of the working population. This is known as a "spillover effect": if many people are unemployed, others also fear for their jobs and are correspondingly unhappy.

Good wage

A good wage makes people happy. Since workers in physically demanding jobs often earn less, they are also less happy. By contrast, managers and bosses described themselves as particularly happy in the study.

Work-life balance

Not surprisingly, people are happier when they have time for family and hobbies in addition to their job. People who come home tired after work are less happy. It's especially bad when you have to deal with work problems at the end of the day.

Working hours

How long someone works is not that important. Even overtime does not harm personal happiness, as long as the work-life balance is still right.

The situation is similar for part-time workers. Those who would like to work more or less, but cannot, tend to be unhappy. People who do not work full-time tend to be happier.

 

Self-employment is classified quite differently. Thus, self-employed workers are happy in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and East Asia, but not in the other regions.

The dear colleagues

Employees also have an influence on happiness at work. If you feel their support, your satisfaction increases. The boss can also contribute to this. Workers are happier if they are involved in decision-making processes, if they can take on responsibility and if they have the opportunity for further training. If employees don't see any chance of advancement, their sense of happiness drops.

Attention, bosses

The researchers point out that there is a difference between "job satisfaction" and "positive work attitude". A person can be happy at work and still not be particularly motivated.

"Satisfaction in the job can possibly be attributed to a certain level of satisfaction. However, a positive work attitude requires the individual to be actively involved in the well-being of the company," they say. The researchers point to another study in which workers were asked to rate their current activities at different times of the day:

"Disturbingly, paid work ranked near the bottom of 40 different activities. Only lying in bed sick was more unpopular."

Here you can find happy workers

The researchers ranked 160 countries on job satisfaction. In first place here is Austria with 95.1 percent happy workers. This is followed by Norway (94.6 percent), Iceland (94.5 percent), the Netherlands (93.8 percent) and in fifth place Switzerland (93.7 percent). Germany comes in only 16th place (90.4 percent), France 35th (86 percent) and Italy 40th (85.5 percent). In last place is Lesotho, with only 44.4 percent of workers satisfied.

Detailed information about career and happiness is available in the mentioned Study, or also in the continuing interview on this Page.

 

 

 

"I am very pleased that the SUISSEDIGITAL networks have found their way back onto the growth path. This fits in with the mood of optimism in the industry surrounding the upcoming launch of the new channel MySports." This is how Simon Osterwalder, Managing Director of the trade association, comments on the latest figures. These show a year-on-year growth of 51,600 subscribers (+1.2%).

Growth was driven by telephony and the Internet. Thus, the SUISSEDIGITAL networks were able to gain 96,000 subscribers in telephony, with 57,100 of these subscribers in mobile telephony and 39,400 in fixed network telephony.

More than every second Internet customer surfs with the TV provider

There was also growth in broadband Internet, where the number of subscribers increased by 18,600 to 1,236,000 (+1.5%). This means that more than one in two customers also obtain broadband Internet from their TV provider. "This is extremely important, as more and more services and offers are Internet-based," says Osterwalder. Year-on-year, SUISSEDIGITAL networks show a loss of 63,000 TV subscribers (-2.5%), which is markedly less than in previous periods. Osterwalder: "It looks quite as if the bottom has been reached for TV. This makes me very optimistic."

SUISSEDIGITAL is the trade association of the Swiss communication networks. It is made up of almost 200 companies, both private and public, which supply more than 2.4 million households with radio, TV, HDTV, Internet, telephony and other services.

www.suissedigital.ch

 

The Digital Enterprise Forum mobilized around 25 practice partners and 300 visitors on May 2, 2017. The Lucerne School of Business, for example, underlined the need for digitization in its study, a preliminary version of which was presented at the Digital Enterprise Forum.

The morning started with exciting presentations on digital marketing, Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things. Keynotes such as that of former IBM CTO Gunter Dueck pointedly showed how human core competencies are shifting with digitalization.

In the afternoon, there was the opportunity to obtain more in-depth information in various practical presentations. Lively networking took place at the partner stands. The Digital Enterprise Forum Lucerne showed that "digitization is not just a buzzword - on the contrary, we are right in the middle of it!

Supplementary information can be found at www.defl.ch

 

Swiss wages are at the top, as shown by the "Global 50 Remuneration Planning Report" by Willis Towers Watson". A middle manager in Switzerland earns a median salary of CHF 164,097 per year, while this figure is CHF 89,540 for an entry-level employee. This makes Switzerland the country with the highest salaries within the ranking determined by Willis Towers Watson.

Employees in Switzerland receive a median salary that is around 50% higher than that of the second-placed countries in the respective category: In terms of managerial salaries, Luxembourg ranks second with a value equivalent to CHF 110,388; in terms of salaries for entry-level employees, Denmark is the second-placed country with CHF 59,569.

Smaller differences when cost of living is taken into account

Even if these figures are considered on the basis of purchasing power parity, for which taxes and cost of living are taken into account, middle managers in Switzerland can maintain their top position in Europe with an adjusted annual salary of CHF 97,207. According to this calculation basis, Luxembourg is in second place, followed by Germany in third place, with Ireland and the UK in the subsequent ranks.

The picture is similar for those entering the workforce: here too, the Swiss continue to occupy the top spot with CHF 58,666, ahead of Denmark and Germany, with Belgium and Ireland following in 4th and 5th place.

The conclusion of these calculations: Even though wages are markedly lower overall after taking into account taxes and the cost of living, employees in Switzerland have the greatest purchasing power in all of Europe.

The full version of the most recent edition of the report (2016) is here available.

 

The STEP Award will be presented for the twelfth time this year. "Thanks to a comprehensive relaunch in 2016 and the associated expansion of the Science sector to include technology and ICT, we have been able to attract further exciting and forward-looking companies for the STEP Award. We would like to continue this in 2017," says Simon Hentschel, Head of Start-up and Growth Projects at Frankfurt Business Media - F.A.Z.-Fachverlag, the initiator of the "STEP Award".

Aim of the STEP Award

As last year's award event showed, following the realignment not only good business ideas but pioneering trailblazers in their industry could be honored. In 2017, the winners will again be chosen at a festive gala at the end of the year. The aim of the "STEP Awards" is to give young companies that have been in existence for at least one year and have already generated their first sales important impetus for their successful further development.

Applications are invited from small and medium-sized companies that are particularly active in B2B business and are focused on growth. The "STEP Award" is intended to help them take the next decisive 'STEP' to long-term success.

Focus on "Human Resources

In 2017, the focus will be on "Human Resources. All award winners benefit from the broad media impact and reach of the F.A.Z. Group and the participating media partners.

More information and application materials:

FRANKFURT BUSINESS MEDIA GmbH - The F.A.Z. Trade Publisher

Ulrike Mayr, Nicole Neusitzer

Phone: (069)75 91-32 31

E-mail: info@step-award.de

Start

The latest edition of the Swiss SME Study 2017, which includes figures collected by the BfS in 2014, shows that it is not large companies with 250 or more employees that dominate the Swiss corporate landscape, but so-called microenterprises with fewer than 10 employees (92.4%). Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (99.8% of all companies) employ a total of around two-thirds of the workforce of market-based companies.

Despite their dominance, it would be wrong to lump all SMEs together. Despite similar company sizes, there are huge differences. For example, the hairdresser, the bakery, the painter or the advertising agency around the corner are just as much SMEs as high-tech global market leaders in medical technology or drone manufacturing.

Switzerland has many individual companies

In terms of legal forms, it is striking that most SMEs are organized as sole proprietorships. In agriculture in particular, just under 88% of SMEs are sole proprietorships. SMEs in the industrial and service sectors are often organized as stock corporations or limited liability companies. As the size of the company increases, the number of sole proprietorships and the number of limited liability companies tends to decrease.

Managing directors are around 50 years old

For the first time, this study took a closer look at the age of management. The Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS) conducted by the Swiss Federal Office was used for this purpose. The result shows that across all industries, the average age of management is around 50. The managing directors of microenterprises are older on average than those in small and medium-sized enterprises. Thus, managers in microenterprises are almost 49 years old on average, and managing directors are 50 years old.

In companies with more than 100 employees, managers are on average 44 years old and company directors 47. A look across borders shows that the SME share is similar in most European countries, but there are differences in the number of employees. For example, large companies in the UK and Germany employ proportionately more people than those in Switzerland.

The KMU-HSG and OBT have been dealing with the concerns and challenges of SMEs for decades, be it in research or in entrepreneurial practice. This series of studies, based on the latest BfS figures, is intended to offer added value to entrepreneurs and society by providing an overview of SMEs in Switzerland and in international comparison.

The upcoming SME figures from the BfS at the end of this year are eagerly awaited, as they will show the partial impact of the removal of the Swiss franc-euro floor on SMEs.

The Swiss SME study can be used to learn more about these Site can be downloaded.

 

 

 

The Swiss Security Barometer, conducted by Symantec, highlights a "dramatic increase in intercepted online banking Trojans in Switzerland." However, the security overview reveals many more findings about online banking Trojans. There was a whopping 117 percent increase in blocked banking Trojans - "from 64 to 139, which is more than double."

As a result, Switzerland now ranks 23rd in the international security comparison. The increase in the number of prevented network attacks was also dramatic. They rose by almost 63 percent to 35,192 (rank 24).

 

Beware of scripts

The increase in blocked malware was not quite as sharp, namely by 20 percent, but remained at a respectable level of 59,480 pieces. Particular caution should be exercised in this context with scripts. "More than half of the malware found its way onto the computer via VisualBasic scripts or JavaScript email attachments," as Candid Wüest, Threat Researcher at Symantec Switzerland, reports.

www.symantec.com

 

Blockchain technology is on the rise. Eight years after the emergence of the original Bitcoin Blockchain, there are many efforts to advance into numerous industries with the security benefits of the technology. But what benefits does it bring to users, and what benefits does it bring to businesses? And what are the new challenges it presents?

Next generation security

First of all, a blockchain can be understood as a database that provides the technical basis for a cryptocurrency. The best-known example of a blockchain is Bitcoin.

Advantage 1: Direct transaction without middleman

The biggest advantage is the direct transaction of parties. There is no third party in the bundle who checks the reliability of the players like an arbitrator, for example a bank, or trustee, like the payment service Paypal.

But why would anyone want to bypass the tried-and-tested fiduciary model? After all, the middleman takes over the work of putting the other party through its paces. But can you trust the referee? Even big banks are not safe from manipulation, as numerous reports have shown in the past.

Advantage 2: Subsequent changes excluded

The parties can regulate and seal their deal themselves, so that the transaction remains visible but unchangeable. This principle demands quasi-honest behavior from the actors.

The "freezing" of transactions requires a different technology than before: Bitcoin, for example, holds the computing capacity of a small town to store its transactions in digital heart. Other technologies use a proof-of-stake algorithm. Each principle has its own technical and economic consequences. No wonder, then, that there is a lot of experimentation with blockchain technology, especially with regard to the security aspect.

Danish and Australian parties hope to use it in online elections. There are offers for the notarization of documents and even the consideration of securing medical records via blockchain technology.

Problem 1: "Blockwashing

One of the biggest challenges in dealing with blockchain technology will be "blockwashing": if a promising technology develops, it is expected to act as a savior in a wide variety of areas. The neck-and-neck approach to capitalizing on the new technology is fueling the early curve of the Gartner Hype cycle . But this also leads to an inevitable collapse if the technology does not live up to expectations - as is already being speculated.

If decentralization was considered an important characteristic of the original blockchain, one has to ask what the technology's move into cloud structures (at Microsoft and IBM, among others) will mean for security performance. While everything is cryptographically secured, operated again by a single party. The original character of the blockchain is thus undermined. Even more: Microsoft's marketing is already playing with the inevitable nickname "Blockchain as a Service" and thus openly negates the entire idea of the decentralized and independent network.

Problem 2: Lack of standardization

The topic of standardization will also have to be addressed in the future. There are numerous proposals and approaches for blockchain technology. Each with its advantages and disadvantages. Collaboration can only be the right approach here to define generally applicable standards. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has already formed a committee to examine initial efforts in this direction.

Problem 3: Good concepts, bad code

Another critical issue revolves around security. Just because the blockchain concept offers security does not mean that the implementation is secure. China, for example - interested in having its own cryptocurrency - recently analyzed 25 of the top blockchain-related software projects and found significant security vulnerabilities: Keyword Input Validation.

Conclusion: First program more securely, then use it

The problems presented here are not merely theoretical. Rather, they are diametrically opposed to the goals of many blockchain projects. Bugs in blockchain implementations are serious and lead to massive security breaches and financial losses, as illustrated by the theft of $400,000 worth of Zcoins last month.

As blockchain software continues to develop, its attack surfaces will also increase. A key factor here will be cleverly devised contracts. While the original Bitcoin blockchain only provides protocols of digital transactions, newer agreements could actually be programs running on the blockchain:

Imagine a legal contract that is replaced by a computer program. Instead of paying a lawyer to regulate the contract, all participating parties could organize it on their own. The blockchain provides immutable and transparent program output. The program itself analyzes the external conditions and executes its clauses properly. Nevertheless:

Computer programs will always have vulnerabilities. In this respect, the solution for secure blockchain technology can only lie in programming with security concepts in mind and thus correcting the weaknesses in input and output validation, for example. And that is before entrusting this technology to large parts of the economy or using it extensively to organize the Internet of Things, for example.

http://www.sophos.com

The study also points to problems and stresses in the workplace. Often, affected employees, colleagues and superiors do not know how to deal with mental health problems. In the course of a year, the study emphasizes, around 20 percent of employees have a (mostly minor) mental illness. Around 75 percent of those affected say their productivity at work is reduced due to their health.

The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Psychiatry Baselland have investigated how mental health problems affect employees in the workplace from the perspective of German-speaking Swiss managers.

The study's findings include the following:

- Managers are not prepared for psychological problem situations

 - Recurring severe problems are often not addressed

 - In most cases, the employment relationship is terminated

 - Small businesses and industrial companies are particularly challenged

 - Managers often act only when problems are acute

 - Support measures should not be linked to absences.

 - The problems take place in the closest circle

 - If psychiatrists are involved, it is primarily a matter of

Research team formulates recommendations:

1.) Sensitization

The study shows a need for training on all sides, not only for managers, but also for human resources managers, in-house staff services, occupational health and safety specialists, the labor inspectorate, case managers from private insurance companies, etc. For this reason, companies should be required, among other things, to provide their managers with appropriate and sustained training in dealing with employees with mental health problems.

2.) Appropriate guidelines

All companies should, among other things, have suitable guidelines for dealing with employees with mental health problems, which should be adapted to the size of the company, etc. and go beyond preventive and health-promoting measures.

3.) Specifications and structures

Experience shows that improved know-how, guidelines and cooperation intentions are not enough (as important as they are) to sustainably change the behavior of the actors. This needs to be accompanied by a framework of legal requirements and incentives for all actors.

Study "The Daily Madness

The research results and the recommendations in detail can be read in the summary as well as in the final report of the study "Der tägliche Wahnsinn - Psychisch auffällige Mitarbeiter und ihr Problemverlauf aus Sicht von Deutschschweizer Führungskräften".

On the website of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts you can also download the complete study download

 

 

For 10 years, the "Prix Perspectives" has considered projects that promote particularly innovative and sustainable commitments in the field of mental illness. Mental illness is a growing problem. For many people, it is still not tangible what lies behind the various manifestations in the field of mental illness.

This ignorance leads to prejudice. Society finds it correspondingly difficult to deal with the mentally ill, which makes life even more difficult for those affected. For this reason, Janssen established the "Prix Perspectives" for the first time in 2006 - a sponsorship award that honors private or institutional aid projects in this area with a total of CHF 25,000.

Appreciation and promotion

Janssen-Cilag AG, together with the expert jury, encourages committed people to submit their projects and activities. Applications are open to private individuals as well as organized groups and clinics that carry out projects such as self-help groups, care services and contact points (support organizations) for relatives.

The focus of these projects should be to help those affected as well as their families to cope better with the disease.

In addition to the chance to win the grant, all participants have the opportunity to present their project to a broad professional audience at the annual congress of the SGPP on September 15, 2017 in Bern and to exchange ideas with each other. In this way, the "Prix Perspectives" not only provides financial support, but also helps to make more people aware of mental illness and the existing support services and to encourage valuable helpers in their commitment. After all, they make an essential contribution in this area.

The winners 2015

As in previous years, a jury of experts selects the winning projects. At the Prix Perspectives in 2015, there was a double win: the prize money was divided between two winning projects. Half of the prize money went to "Radio loco motivo", a radio program by people with psychiatric experience to promote new developments in psychiatry. Radio loco motivo established a comprehensive "anti-stigma campaign" ranging from rehabilitation for those affected, to exchanges with relatives, to raising social awareness of psychiatric issues as a whole.

The second winner was a mobile residential care service created in Zurich. On the one hand, it supports assisted living facilities in making their services more flexible and improving their sustainability. On the other hand, it helps establish new services for mentally ill people who want to find and keep their own apartment.

Apply now for the "Prix Perspectives":

The application period extends up to and including June 1, 2017. The award ceremony will take place at the Annual Congress of the Swiss Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (SGPP) on September 15, 2017 in Bern. Further information as well as the application form and the regulations can be found at www.prixperspectives.ch