Cybersecurity has grown in significance at all levels in recent years. Since ensuring cybersecurity has become an essential federal task, the Federal Council established in 2019 the National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) as a unit in the General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) to deal with the multifarious challenges in the cyber domain. Given the growing importance of the NCSC, in spring 2022, the Federal Council decided that the NCSC would become a federal office. During its meeting on 2 December 2022, the Federal Council decided that the new federal office will be assigned to the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS). It instructed the DDPS, in collaboration with the FDF, to define the structures of the new federal office by end-March 2023.

According to its press release, the Federal Council has instructed the DDPS, in collaboration with the FDF, to define the structures of the new federal office, the available synergies and the interfaces with other federal units by end-March 2023. By exploiting synergies with the DDPS’s existing cybersecurity expertise, the NCSC shall be strengthened. It shall continue to assume the core cybersecurity tasks, which include supporting businesses and the public in dealing with cyber incidents, providing a national reporting office and contact point, issuing information and alerts about cyberthreats and protective measures, raising awareness among the public, and protecting the Federal Administration. In the fulfilment of its tasks, the NCSC will continue to work very closely with other federal offices, the cantons, the business community, and academia. The new federal office will remain a civilian unit of the Federal Administration. The DDPS has been instructed to identify how civil security will be institutionally ringfenced and reinforced relative to military tasks within the department by end-March 2023.