Overload attack (DDoS): Municipality and public administration, Switzerland 2024
On voting Sunday, 24 November 2024, a DDoS attack on the eastern Swiss website provider Backslash paralysed numerous municipal websites, including Aarau, Baden and Brugg; Backslash serves 68 municipalities in Aargau.
- Incident · 11.2024 · Canton of Aargau, Switzerland
- Evidence: confirmed by an authority
- Overload attack (DDoS)
- Attack via a supplier
As of
What happened
Only around 15:00 was the attack fully repelled. The transmission of the voting results ran via a separate system and was not disrupted.
- Affected
- Aargau municipalities (customers of the website provider Backslash)
- Loss
- no reliable figure
- Business interruption
- unknown
- Ransom demanded / paid
- unknown / unknown
- Data affected
- unknown
- Bankruptcy
- no
- Entry point
- DDoS on the website provider’s data centre
What would cyber insurance have paid?
That depends on the terms. Whether those affected were insured: unknown.
-
Loss of income if the cloud or a provider is attacked
Mostly limited 6 of 9 business products cover it fully, as an add-on or with limits.
Overview based on public policy terms, as of 06.11.2026. Only your policy and its general terms and conditions (GTC) are binding. No confirmation of cover.
What we can learn
Critical processes such as voting results belong on a system that does not depend on the web host.
Sources
- Hackerangriff legt Aargauer Gemeindewebsites am Abstimmungssonntag lahm (opens in a new window) Netzwoche · 25.11.2024
«Die Übermittlung der Abstimmungsergebnisse blieb jedoch ungestört.»
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