Swiss technology institutes launch joint cyber security master's program

GENEVA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Switzerland's two top technology institutes have launched the country's first masters' program in cyber security as they seek to play a leading role in studying the protection of computers and networks, the Swiss Federal Institute of technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and Zurich's ETH said in a joint statement on Thursday.

"Switzerland has been long recognized for its strengths in terms of reliability and trust. We have an outstanding education system with two federal institutes of technology, ETH Zurich and EPFL, which are among the best in the world," said Education and Research Minister Guy Parmelin at the launch event on Wednesday.

EPFL President Martin Vetterli said: "We live in a world where one individual in his or her apartment can bring a company or even a whole country to its knees."

Parmelin was reminded of the need to protect against hackers by a cyber attack on government-owned defense company RUAG in early 2016, just 20 days after he took up his previous post as defense minister, reported Swissinfo, the website of the national broadcaster.

He said that the academic world was already working on cyber security well beforehand in a world where, unfortunately, "in the realm of IT security, the thieves are often ahead of the police."

The course debuts in the academic year beginning in the latter part of 2019, runs for four semesters and EPFL and ETH Zurich will jointly run it.

Students may choose three semesters in Zurich and one in Lausanne, or the other way round.

The course includes work experience in a company and a social sciences component since there are legal, ethical, economic, political as well as technical aspects to cyber security.

Joel Mesot, president of ETH Zurich, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics university, noted that Zurich also has experts working in specialized and relatively little-known fields, such as security for GPS or 5G systems.

"EPFL has invested a lot in cyber security research over more than ten years with teachers highly qualified in cryptography and protection of personal data," said EPFL's Vetterli. Enditem