Hackers steal data of 340 SRF employees

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SSR) announced on Monday that SRF, the German-language public broadcaster, had been hit by a cyberattack. Following the incident, the company filed a criminal complaint with the competent authorities.

According to the statement released by the SSR, the attackers managed to steal the contact and organisational data of around 340 people, both former and current employees of the broadcaster. The compromised information dates back to 2020 and includes names, positions held within the company and work contact details; in some cases, private contact details of the employees concerned were also affected.

The attack mainly affected staff in SRF's Information division, the department responsible for producing the broadcaster's journalistic content. The other business units and regional offices, the SSR states in its notice, were not affected by the intrusion.

No sensitive data compromised

The SSR states that the hackers did not manage to access personal passwords or the financial or banking data of the employees involved. Journalistic sources, research data and communication content belonging to the broadcaster were also not affected by the attack, the company stresses.

As soon as the intrusion into its systems was discovered, the company immediately activated the necessary countermeasures. The individuals whose data was affected were notified individually, the compromised accounts were deactivated, and additional IT security measures were introduced to protect the company.

The SSR is now investigating the causes of the attack with the support of internal and external experts, in order to reconstruct precisely how the intrusion occurred and where it originated. At present, there is no indication or evidence that the stolen data has been published or misused by third parties.

The company gave no further details on how the intrusion took place or when it began.