Cyscon GmbH is an IT consultancy with its main headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany, founded by Thorsten Kraft and Thomas Wolf. Cyson aided a group of companies in taking down the computer virus Conficker as part of the Confiker Working Group and is a founding member of Botfrei, the German anti-botnet advisory centre. Since 2013, Cyscon has powered the online security audit Check & Secure and is an official partner of the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (abbreviated BSI in English: Federal Office for Information Security) cyscon SIRT (C_SIRT) Cyscon is responsible for C-SIRT, an online incident reporting team that works with a variety of partners to identify domain hacking and incidents of malware across the internet. cyscon's C-SIRT is part of the VirusTotal scanning engine. Check & Secure In 2013, cyscon, alongside Vodafone, founded Check & Secure as part as an end-user safety initiative. The test is divided into four parts, a Router Check, a Botnet check, a Browser and Plugin check and a "Cyber Vaccination", which includes the software of SurfRight's HitmanPro. Press coverage In January 2014 and again in April 2014, massive data thefts, mostly of email addresses and passwords, were discovered in Germany, causing panic amongst the general public. Check & Secure was cited in reputable German magazines such as Spiegel and Stern as a solution to the issue, as users were advised to update their browsers and plugins using the tool. Co-operation with BSI As part of the reaction to the issue of 18 million email accounts being lost, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) set up a service with which the general public could check whether their own address had been compromised. Although cyscon were initially critical of the methods used by the BSI in an article on the Check & Secure blog, the company has since worked with the ministry to improve consumer safety in Germany, becoming a member of the newly formed Alianz fuer Cybersicherheit (English: Alliance for Cyber Security). STOP.THINK.CONNECT Early in 2014, Check & Secure announced its partnership with the STOP.THINK.CONNECT program, powered by the National Cyber Security Alliance. Check & Secure is an international partner of the program and will as such focus on consumers in Germany and Russia. Swiss Internet Security Alliance In September 2014, cyscon was named as the technical provider for the Swiss Internet Security Alliance. The partnership between cyscon and partners such as Swisscom