Swiss universities want to strengthen protection against knowledge espionage
Keystone-SDA
According to the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, Swiss universities want to strengthen protection against knowledge espionage. It would be naive to believe that Switzerland is not affected by espionage, said the rector of the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.
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A Swissuniversities working group is proposing to set up a contact point at each university and a national coordination centre for knowledge security in order to prevent certain state actors from accessing knowledge and technologies. “We also need improved coordination when it comes to data exchange between universities,” said Günther Dissertori in an interview with the newspaper.
An exchange of critical dossiers is also being considered in order to prevent applicants from entering the Swiss system in a roundabout way. This would avoid duplication and ensure that all universities operate according to the same criteria. According to Dissertori, there is no risk of discrimination: “The analysis is based on risk and not on nationality. Origin merely triggers a more detailed examination.”
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How Swiss universities combat espionage from high-risk nations
The ETH Zurich has been carrying out a security screening of applications from countries such as Russia, China, Iran and Afghanistan for a year now, which has resulted in 80 applications being rejected during this period. According to Dissertori, people are assessed according to criteria such as origin, previous education, source of funding and the intended degree programme or field of work. “If we identify a critical combination, we do not accept them at the ETH,” said the rector.
Translated from German with DeepL/gw
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