Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a basic requirement for digital societies to function. It must be ensured every day, as cyberattacks are everywhere. This issue of HSG FOCUS looks at key digital threats and shows possible ways to respond.
As Prof. Guido Salvaneschi explains, cybercrime has become a globally organized industry with its own business models, service structures, and strong growth. Ransomware is a preferred tool because it is scalable and profitable. However, effective defense does not start with expensive technology. It begins with simple measures such as strong passwords, regular backups, and raising employee awareness.
At the same time, artificial intelligence is making the situation more complex. It helps automate attacks, imitate voices, and lower the barriers for attackers. But defenders also use AI, for example, to detect unusual activity, creating a constant interplay between attack and defense.
What happens when a company is successfully attacked? In an interview, Thomas Meier, CEO of InfoGuard AG, describes these situations as driven by clear business logic rather than drama. Criminal groups often see themselves as entrepreneurs. What matters most is who controls the pace of negotiations and stays calm under pressure. His key message is clear: cyber resilience is a top management responsibility and cannot be delegated.
Prof. Bruno Rodrigues highlights a largely overlooked form of surveillance. Standard Wi-Fi routers can detect people through walls, without cameras or microphones. This technology, known as "Wi-Fi sensing", has been commercially available since 2024. This raises an important political question: who is allowed to use these signals?
There is also debate about whether the impact of social media on minors is an issue of cyber hygiene or cybersecurity. Countries such as Australia and France have introduced bans for young users. However, a research team at HSG led by Prof. Simon Mayer argues that the real problem is not the users, but the algorithms designed to maximize engagement. These have proven harmful effects across all age groups. A general ban does not solve the root cause; it only delays the problem.
Finally, a video report by Daniel Sager traces the development of cybersecurity from the breaking of the Enigma code in World War II to today. It shows that with every new technology, digital self-defense must be learned again.

Podcast

«Alpha Boys» (2025)

The four-part SRF podcast Alpha Boys explores how young men become embroiled in the manosphere, a digital community where influential figures such as Andrew Tate amass millions of followers. The series takes an in-depth look at digital communities where the pursuit of self-improvement and strength can lead to misogyny and incitement to violence.

Book

Shoshana Zuboff: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2018)

A book by Shoshana Zuboff that provides a good view under a societal perspective to understand the how the passive collection of our behavioral data defines the privacy battle of our time. If you are short on time, jump straight into Chapter 8 ("Rendition: From Experience to Data") to see exactly how our physical, lived experiences are quietly appropriated and turned into digital power.

YouTube Video

Dina Katabi: A new way to monitor vital signals (that can see through walls) (2018)

A great TED talk by MIT Professor Dina Katabi explaining the physics and the healthcare potential to a general audience.

Study

World Happiness Report 2026

The World Happiness Report is the world’s foremost publication on global wellbeing and how to improve it. It combine wellbeing data from over 140 countries with high-quality analysis by world-leading researchers from a range of academic disciplines. The report Shows that life satisfaction is highest at low rates of social media use and lower at higher rates of use, according to data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) covering seven internet activities for 15-year-old students in 47 countries.

Article

Sander van der Linden: Social media bans for teens lack evidence (2026)

In his article published in Nature Health, Sander van der Linden argues that online harms constitute an urgent societal challenge. He also states that governments must prepare teenagers to use digital technology responsibly.

Article

Meg Duff: How Wi-Fi sensing became usable tech (2024)

A must read article in the MIT Technology Review and an overview on how this technology leaped from laboratories into consumer devices.

Article

Jean-Yves Marion: Ransomware: Extortion Is My Business (2025)

Ransomware attacks are a professional extortion business, not just a technical cyber threat. Drawing on real incidents and current research, this article reveals how attackers organize, negotiate, and pressure victims into paying ransoms. It is an accessible, eye-opening read for anyone who wants to understand what is really driving today’s ransomware wave.

Article

Kris Oosthoek / Jack Cable / Georgios Smaragdakis: A Tale of Two Markets: Investigating the Ransomware Payments Economy (2023)

The authors of this article follow the money and show how ransomware attacks really pay off. Based on thousands of real transactions, it reveals two distinct approaches: low-end, off-the-shelf attacks and highly professional ransomware-as-a-service operations, who both have their own business logic and incentives. By tracing how crypto payments move through intermediaries, this article gives readers a clear, accessible picture of the ransomware economy.

Book

Chris Voss: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It (2016)

An absolute must-read on this topic. International bestseller with a tried-and-tested approach to negotiations. Particularly worth reading because: practical techniques, psychological approach, exciting stories, diverse applicability.

Podcast

SRF Digital Podcast: "Ransomware-Negotiator" (2024)

Interesting insights into negotiating with cybercriminals, including insights from one of our absolute top experts.

YouTube Video

Docu NZZ Format: "Ransomware attack: Companies held hostage by cybercriminals" (2026)

Using real-life examples, the documentary impressively shows how ransomware attacks work today and why they pose an existential threat to many companies.

Stay focused

From the feeds of universities, think tanks, and the media.
01.07.2026
U.S. Declines to Renew USMCA Trade Deal, Starting 10-Year Clock to Expiration
Business

U.S. Declines to Renew USMCA Trade Deal, Starting 10-Year Clock to Expiration

The Trump administration said Wednesday it would not immediately request to renew the North American trade agreement, leaving businesses uncertain about the trade deal’s direction.

New York Times Business

Geldpolitik: Preisdruck im Euro-Raum lässt im Juni deutlich nach
Business

Geldpolitik: Preisdruck im Euro-Raum lässt im Juni deutlich nach

Die Teuerungsrate fällt deutlich und liegt wieder unterhalb der Marke von drei Prozent. Wie reagiert die EZB auf den nachlassenden Preisdruck?

Handelsblatt

Europe watches the next American revolution take shape
Politics

Europe watches the next American revolution take shape

Europe watches the next American revolution take shape Expert comment jon.wallace 1 July 2026 Europe cannot affect the course of America’s latest reinvention, as it did 250 years ago. But it can adapt to a more unhappy relationship. London is a fraught place from which to watch an American revolution. There is an amusing local story, that King George III spent many hours poring over military plans in a basement near Buckingham Palace, scheming how best to supress troublesome revolutionaries. That basement, the rumour goes, was located in what is now Chatham House: my new professional home after leaving Washington and life as a US diplomat last year.  Throughout America’s War of Independence, Great Britain’s leaders dumped blood and treasure into securing their rebellious colonies, intent on overcoming their scrappy but capable countrymen: revolutionaries who sought religious liberty and freedom to dissent. Revolutionaries who opposed unjust taxation and exploitative trade relations. Revolutionaries who rejected the status quo.  King George’s basement plotting was for naught, and a new nation was born. Today, 250 years later, leaders in Britain – and across Europe – once again watch with trepidation as new political currents take root across the Atlantic. History doesn’t repeat itself, but in the US its echoes carry a similar spirit of revolt. This movement is not directed at an outside power, but rather at the current system’s ability to address Americans’ biggest worries: the availability and affordability of healthcare above all, followed by issues including the economy, inflation, federal spending and the deficit, and income and wealth distribution.   While many Americans agree on the diagnosis, there’s sharp division on the remedies. Some call for reining in expansive US military commitments abroad and redirecting war spending to focus on investments at home. Others hope to dismantle the billionaire class and promote greater economic justice. Some seek a consolidation of executive power to unleash the authority of the presidency. These are live debates heading into the November midterms, and they cut across party lines.Europe’s viewEuropean leaders, observing this storm, wonder what will remain when the tempest subsides. They recognize these winds blowing across the US for what they are: not a short-lived gust but a sustained gale. They know that irrespective of who next presides over the Congress or sits behind the White House’s Resolute Desk, the US is fundamentally altering its role in the world. Plans must be made to account for a more inwardly focused US, one that is less embedded in alliances and less aligned on values.  This is not a new American story. As the ink dried on the Declaration of Independence, the new United States began an awesome project of stitching together a vision for its role in the world – no small feat given the composition of its often-divided citizenry.   The US still needs Europe when it comes to global financial markets, emerging technology cooperation, intelligence sharing, select military cooperation and alignment on China.   President George Washington warned against alliances and entanglements, worried that permanent structures would weigh the new nation down with others’ burdens. His successors largely stayed the course. It took Pearl Harbor to drag a reluctant President Roosevelt into war in Europe. The post-Second World War structure was a new, American-crafted design, launching the most powerful set of interlocking alliances the world had ever seen. US troops ensured the security of partners on bases across six continents, paid for with ballooning federal deficits. Liberalized trade brought cheap goods but closed factories in the US. New immigrants made America an engine of innovation but fuelled a nativist backlash. President Trump did not spark such fears, but he stoked them.As Americans begin the process to select Trump’s successor, competing visions for the US’s future will emerge. Candidates will debate the true nature of the threat from China, how much time to spend on Russia, the contours of a fairer trade regime, the rules of the road for emerging technology, and the future of alliances. Whoever wins, Europe is right to anticipate a different relationship with the US. Today’s era, of a Washington that prioritizes American manufacturing and higher trade barriers, is here to stay. A period of greater burden-sharing with partners and a more limited global US defence role will outlast Trump. So too will the president’s transactionalism, and narrower conceptions of national interest.For those of us who still believe in the value of alliances, it’s not all doom and gloom. These alliances will endure in newer forms. The scope will be narrower, but the US still needs Europe when it comes to global financial markets, emerging technology cooperation, intelligence sharing, select military cooperation, and alignment on China.   The World Today Related work Laurel Rapp: ‘There’s no going back to the America of the past decade’ Europe needs the US too – maybe a bit too much, as its leaders have painfully learned. But Europe is now making key investments in NATO spending, an independent defence industrial base delinked from US defence trade, greater sovereign AI capabilities, and space and satellite infrastructure. Fear of US dependency has accelerated these investments, but in the long run, they can be converted into sources of transatlantic strength.I recently hosted a former US official in conversation with diplomats in London. Like me, this person was pessimistic about the prospects for a restoration of trust with Europe post-Trump. But, the visitor observed, many loveless marriages survive because one spouse keeps cutting the grass and the other keeps cooking dinner. ‘What are these tasks?’ another wondered: that is, what bonds might keep the US–Europe marriage intact?In my view, it goes something like this: the US provides Europe with a nuclear umbrella, integration in US capital markets and preferential access to American technology. Europe grants the US access to its capital, offers secure supply chains for key technology inputs and extends the reach of its sanctions.As Europe takes on fuller ownership of its own neighbourhood, especially across its eastern flank, the US will be freed up to look east. The shared language of democracy and universal values are no longer centred. But the US and Europe remain bound together, joyless yet committed.  The multitudeKing George III marched over to Parliament in October 1775 to detail his war plans against the ‘unhappy and deluded Multitude’ in America. He promised to ‘receive the Misled with Tenderness and Mercy’ once they realized the error of their ways.The revolutionaries may have been unhappy as British cannons tore into their defences, but they were certainly not deluded. The multitude went on to build a nation that has reshaped history, underwriting an era of security and prosperity for many, though not all.  

Chatham House

30.06.2026
29.06.2026
What Can the Arts Teach Future Leaders?
Society

What Can the Arts Teach Future Leaders?

What can a Van Gogh painting, a Puccini opera, and a midnight jazz session teach future business leaders?That question lies at the heart of Leadership and the Arts in Paris, an MBA intensive course led by Professor Daniel Newark. Over three immersive days, students explored leadership through paintings, literature, music, dance, and opera while visiting some of Paris's most iconic cultural institutions, including the Palais Garnier, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Opéra Bastille. "The course stems from the conviction that there is substantial overlap between foundational topics of leadership and foundational topics addressed by the arts and humanities," said Newark. "In both cases, subjects like making and justifying decisions, motivating action, attention, meaning and storytelling, emotion, ambiguity, tension, and paradox are central."Rather than offering leadership formulas or management hacks, the course invites students to engage with complexity through some of humanity's greatest artistic works. Along the way, they are encouraged to develop skills that are increasingly valuable for leaders: observation, interpretation, empathy, and reflection.For Kasia Krzowska (MBA ’27), one of the course's most important lessons was learning to slow down and notice."The professor constantly pushed us to observe before rushing to interpret," she said. "It sounds simple, but it goes against how most professional environments operate, since speed is rewarded and slowing down is often perceived as hesitation."At the Musée d'Orsay, students were asked to analyze a work of art through the lens of leadership. Krzowska chose Gustave Caillebotte's Raboteurs de parquet and came away with a new perspective."It made me think about leadership differently, not as authority, but as attention," she said. "Who do you choose to see? Whose work do you make visible? These are questions I think every leader should ask themselves."The course also challenged students to embrace ambiguity. Electronic devices were prohibited during class sessions, creating space for deeper observation and discussion.One of the most memorable moments for Federick Nasol (MBA Class of ’27) came after a performance of Tosca, when students debated the opera's portrayal of power and authority."The men in the group tended to analyze the imbalance structurally like the mechanics of power, the logic of Scarpia's position," he recalled. "The women felt it differently. For them, Tosca's bind wasn't abstract."The discussion highlighted how personal experiences shape the way leaders interpret situations. Leadership is not necessarily about finding a single correct interpretation, Nasol said, but about recognizing that people can experience the same reality in very different ways.For Newark, these conversations are precisely the point."Much of leadership is interpreting and making meaning out of ambiguous stimuli and circumstances," he said. "The more one can perceive about one's environment and the people one is leading, the more effective a leader one is likely to be."The city of Paris itself serves as an extension of the classroom. Whether discussing Van Gogh at the Musée d'Orsay, attending a performance at the Palais Garnier, or reflecting on leadership questions between cultural experiences, students are immersed in an environment that encourages curiosity and dialogue.Reflecting on the experience, Nasol believes the course is particularly relevant at a time when technology is transforming the way people learn and work."It reminds us that leadership is still about people... that we are gloriously, stubbornly, inconveniently human," he saidThe arts became more than a source of inspiration. They offered a new way to think about leadership—one rooted not in easy answers, but in observation, reflection, and a deeper understanding of the human experience.

HEC

Warum die VW-Krise nicht nur aus China kommt
Business

Warum die VW-Krise nicht nur aus China kommt

Präsentiert von Ørsted.

Politico