Thanks to its status as a financial centre, Switzerland is seeing a sharp rise in spying activities amid the global economic crisis, the Swiss intelligence service told AFP. "We have seen a general interest for financial information," Juerg Buehler, who heads the service, part of the defence ministry, said in an interview. "This trend is reinforced with the financial crisis and competition between financial centres..."
Given the rising risks of foreign intelligence penetration, Buehler said his service is trying to make the banking industry aware of the dangers.
But he acknowledged that "we cannot have police patrolling in front of every bank". (more)
Side note: Most financial institutions already retain the services of eavesdropping detection / counterespionage consulting firms. ~Kevin
