Cyber resilience is a key concern for the Swiss financial sector given the growing threat of cyber risks globally.
Communication between participants in the financial marketplace and financial market infrastructures is also affected by this issue.
In order to further improve the resilience of the financial system against cyber risks, the SNB and SIX are launching the Secure Swiss Finance Network (SSFN) communication network. It is aimed at secure, flexible and resilient data communication. The SSFN is a monitored and protected network that allows authorised participants operating in the Swiss financial centre to communicate securely with each other and with financial market infrastructures. This is intended to increase the security and stability of communication with the SIC payment system and other SIX services. The launch of the SSFN should make a significant contribution to combating cyber risks.
The network is based on SCION technology developed at ETH Zurich. This network architecture makes it possible to control which parties may use the communication network and which path data take when being transmitted from sender to receiver.
The SSFN has been developed in close collaboration with the telecommunications companies Sunrise UPC, Swisscom and SWITCH as well as the SCION software provider Anapaya Systems. The participation of several telecom companies improves the resilience and flexibility of communication within the network.
The SSFN is expected to go live in November 2021 and will initially run in parallel with SIX’s existing, already highly secure communication service. The SSFN will replace this service in the medium term however, due to its superior flexibility and functionality.