Switzerland is facing an increased wave of foreign spying, cyber attacks and the risk of online radicalisation of young people. So declared Serge Bawaud, director of the Confederata Intelligence Service. ( UB, in an interview for the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung ( NZZZ, on the occasion of an anniversary of taking office.
According to Bawaud has declared for Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Switzerland has become an important target for foreign intelligence services, especially those from Russia, China and Iran. The financial centre, international organisations, elite universities and the powerful economy make Switzerland extremely attractive to these states, which are preparing for future conflicts where technological superiority will be crucial.
The head of Swiss intelligence found during a conversation with the NZZ that spies are trying to bypass sanctions by using extinguishing companies and mediators to export high precision machinery from Switzerland to third states, such as China.
There the equipment can be dismantled and reexported to Russia. In the end, Moscow can be equipped with Swiss machines that produce components for intimidation or rockets, Bavaud warned.
He added that the NDB, in co-operation with international partners, is working intensively to cut off these supply chains and detect local industry through a preventative programme.
Bawaud acknowledged that foreign partner services are putting great pressure on Switzerland to show more severity to Russian agents.
He warned that if other European states discover and expel the spies, while Switzerland hesitates, the country risks becoming a logistical and operational base for Russian hybrid attacks on Europe ʹ which would seriously damage the country’s reputation. However, he explained that the decision to expel diplomats-spyu belongs to politics, not to the secret service, respectively.
As far as internal security is concerned, Bawaud stressed in the interview for NZZZ that the terrorist threat remains high, especially on the eve of holidays and the opening of Christmas markets. According to him, terrorist groups are very active on the internet, where they recruit and radicalise young people. Today you no longer need to travel to Syria to radicalize this could happen in your room, eventually along with a friend, he said, citing the stabful attack on an Orthodox Jew in Zürrich by an ISIS fan. The timely trace of these lonely ones, who are often driven by mere magic after violence, remains one of the biggest security challenges.
In parallel with these warnings, 53-year-old Serge Bawaud é, who has a colonel’s rank in the Swiss Army and heads NDB since November 1st 2025 after a long career in diplomacy and crisis management, reported Friday from headquarters in the Bern that the decades-old and controversial process of service restructuring has ended. The new facility will take effect in 2027, reducing the board of directors from six to four and dividing the ministry into four main areas: Governments, operations, resources and security, as well as Technology. /Telegraphy/
Source Layer: Insander
