25 APRIL 2018
Combating cybercrime in Switzerland
Under certain conditions, the registries for the „.ch“ and “.swiss” domain are required to block domain names suspected of being used for phishing, for the distribution of harmful software (“malware”) or to support such activities.
The measures to combat cybercrime using domain names as laid down in the Ordinance on Internet Domains (OID; CC 784.104.2 revised on 1 January 2018) apply to top-level internet domains for the management of which the Confederation is responsible, i.e. the „.ch“ and „.swiss“ domains; in particular, they give the registries responsible for the management of these resources the possibility of temporarily blocking „.ch“ and „.swiss“ domain names where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they are being used:
- to access sensitive data using illegal methods (phishing)
- to distribute or operate harmful software („malware“) or
- to support any of these activities.
Registries are, moreover, obliged to block these domain names at the request of an anti-cybercrime service recognised by OFCOM.