The Swiss intelligence community is a group of agencies with responsibilities to protect the interests and infrastructure of

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The Federal Intelligence Service (FIS), the country's main intelligence agency, is governed by the Intelligence Service Act.

History

The first federal military secret service was established in 1937-1939 as Büro Ha by Hans Hausamann a few years before the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Up to that point, the responsibility for intelligence gathering was left to the police.

Cold War Intelligence

Not much is known about the Swiss intelligence agencies; however, case files from the Swiss Federal Police have been recently uncovered showing information regarding Swiss intelligence dealing with the People's Republic of China. During this time period of approximately 1960-1980 Switzerland's main goal regarding intelligence was the threat of communism within the country. What was found in the case files, and one way they would combat communism is through the system of ''fiches. Fiches'' was a system of index cards that tracked any sort of anti-patriotic actions performed by anyone in Switzerland. The system seemed to be successful with a recorded 900,000 cards made during the Cold War, and about 25,000 cards made for people of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese descent. The ultimate goal of ''fiches'' was to ward off any potential communist threats that might cause harm to Switzerland.

Federal Intelligence Service

As of 1 January 2010, there is a new security policy instrument in Switzerland, the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) (, NDB; , SRC; , SIC; , SIC). The new service was created by merging the Service for Analysis and Prevention (DAP) with the Strategic Intelligence Service (SND). Through the use of synergies and consistent adjustment to the needs of the service recipients a powerful intelligence service was created which is adapted to meet modern requirements and which forms the future contact for all levels of the Confederation and the cantons.

Partners and service recipients

The partners and service recipients of the FIS are the political and military leaders, the federal administration, in particular the departments: * Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) * Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) * Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) * Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA). * Important partners are also the cantons, including 84 national security agents engaged by the Confederation. Abroad the FIS maintains contacts to more than 100 intelligence, police and security services throughout the world. These bilateral and multilateral contacts have all been authorised by the Federal Council.

Organization

The FIS's activities and mandate were defined by statute in the Federal Civil Intelligence Act 1997 * the FIS procures security policy relevant information about other countries and evaluates these * the FIS fulfils intelligence tasks relating to domestic security according to the STA * the FIS ensures a comprehensive assessment of the threat situation. And according to the Federal Civil Intelligence Act * the FIS recognises and combats dangers relating to terrorism, illegal intelligence,

violent extremism Violent extremism is a form of extremism that condones and enacts violence with Ideology, ideological or deliberate intent, such as Religious violence, religious or political violence. Violent extremist views often conflate with Religious violen ...

and proliferation and * identifies attacks against critical information infrastructure. The thematic and geographic areas of interest are: * In Switzerland these are terrorism and violent extremism, proliferation, attacks against critical infrastructure and illegal intelligence activities. * Abroad, the FIS's thematic areas continue to be proliferation, terrorism, armed forces development, operational areas of our armed forces abroad as well as weapon technology and arms trade. * The geographic areas of interest continue to be Europe, Russia and the CIS states, the Near East and north Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the US and hot spots in Africa.

Publications

The Federal Intelligence Service produces an annual report called ''Switzerland's Security'', available for download on the FIS website. For instance, in September 2020, about the China–Switzerland relations, the report said that:

Budget

In 2017, the FIS' budget was CHF75.6 million.

Other Swiss intelligence agencies

Military Intelligence Service

The Military Intelligence Service (; ; ) is the

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

branch of the

Armed Forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

Postal Service and Telecommunications Surveillance

The Postal Service and Telecommunications Surveillance (, SCPT; , ÜPF; , SCPT; Romansh: ''surveglianza dal traffic da posta e da telecommunicaziun'', STPT) is a service within the

Federal Department of Justice and Police The Federal Department of Justice and Police (, , , ) is one of the seven Ministry (government department), departments of the Switzerland, Swiss federal government, and is equivalent to a ministry of justice in other countries. As of 2024, it ...

(since 1 January 2008) charged with coordinating

wiretapping Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

requests of the criminal investigation authorities.

International cooperation

FIS has collaborated with over 100 foreign intelligence agencies. In 2017, the FIS received approximately 12,500 notifications from foreign intelligence agencies, and sent out 6,000.

Controversies

In 2012, a senior IT technician stole crucial intelligence documents. In 2014, an agent of the Federal Intelligence Services was involved in a hacking case against journalists acting for , a Swiss winemaker.

References

External links

Official website

Strategic Intelligence Service - Official publication
*
Post and Telecommunications Surveillance Service (PTSS) Homepage
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