Campaign to make Zurich's IT more secure

The city of Zurich has launched a campaign for greater cyber security. According to a press release from the Organization and IT Department (OIZ), city employees are to be made aware of and trained in dealing with information security starting this week.

"Thanks to the continuous development of technical defense measures and the expertise of the city's IT professionals, there have been no successful cyberattacks on the city of Zurich in recent years," writes the OIZ. Nevertheless, it is important that the employees of the City of Zurich make their contribution to a secure IT working environment through correct behavior. The increasing number of attempted attacks and security vulnerabilities as well as the growing complexity of the IT infrastructure make this necessary.

Manual and internal activities

The campaign aims to provide comprehensive information on the topic of information security and impart important tips, as the OIZ said on request. The initial plan is to distribute a handbook at the larger municipal locations. This will deal in particular with the topics of working in the office, the digital world in general, flexible working, working on the move, the special security needs of blue light organizations and the private environment.

In addition to the distribution campaigns, activities are currently underway on the city's social intranet. Brown bag sessions are planned at various city locations after the summer break, and there will be an Advent campaign towards the end of the year.

What are the most important things to consider when it comes to personal IT security? The OIZ gave the editorial team three tips at the start of the campaign: Firstly, passwords should be sufficiently long and have no context. Secondly, caution should be exercised when opening unknown and unexpected attachments. Thirdly, automatic updates should be activated.

Text: Oliver Schneider, Netzwoche