Documentation 2020

Potsdam Talks on National CyberSecurity 2020

Conference documents 2020 (German only)
Press Release 2020 (German only)
Potsdam Conference on National CyberSecurity 2019
Twitter hashtag of the event: #HPI_Security

Statements

Dr Dietmar Woidke

Minister-President of the State of Brandenburg

"The Corona pandemic shows the importance of digitization - from the home office to the tracing app. Particularly crucial areas to tackle are currently cyber security and the enablement of people to deal well with digital changes, with a focus on the benefits for the common good. Everyone has a great responsibility to understand and shape the complexity of digitization."

[Translate to Englisch:] Bruno Kahl (BND)

Dr Bruno Kahl

President of the Federal Intelligence Service

"Around the world, the inhibition threshold for using cyberattacks to gain a political, military or economic advantage is decreasing . Reconnaissance and successful defense against such attacks can only succeed through close exchange and joint action with international partners."

Wilfried Karl

President of the Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector (ZITiS)

"Without the digital sovereignty of Germany, there will be no innovations and important government tasks can only be carried out in the future when depending on foreign actors. 5G and the Corona pandemic have shown that the course for the future must be set now."

Martina Link

Vice President of the Federal Criminal Police Office

"Digital sovereignty for Germany means using the opportunities of digitalization to fight crime. Uniform IT standards, a common data house and the shared use of police applications: With the program Police 2020, we are shaping the future!"

Major General Jürgen Setzer

Deputy Inspector Cyber and Information Space of the Bundeswehr (CIR)

"The threat situation in Germany has become considerably more complicated as a result of digitalization. To successfully meet these new challenges, it is important to network all relevant players - government, industry and science. The CIR military organizational unit is making a significant impact on this nationwide task."

Walter Haas

Member of the Management Board of Huawei Germany

"Cybersecurity is a global challenge due to worldwide supply chains. Addressing it requires the triad of standardization, verification, and certification. Because it is not the origin but the specific qualities of a product that are decisive for its security."

Prof. Reinhard Posch

Chief Information Officer of the Republic of Austria

"Virtual communication is dominated by the cloud and the issues of authenticity and access control are in most cases reduced directly to the "password" level. The need for eID as well as legally valid electronic signatures, which also protect confidential content from operators, must be prioritized."

Nikolaus Hagl

Member of the Executive Board of SAP Germany

"Authorities with security responsibilities play a strategic role. Through their innovation policy, they can provide an impetus for economic policy and safeguard Germany's long-term ability to act. But there is also a special responsibility here to help shape digital sovereignty."

Dr Gerhard Schabhüser

Vice President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)

"Germany has proven to be amazingly flexible during the Corona Shutdown. Many companies and government agencies have implemented home offices on a large scale, and in some cases in a very improvised manner. The goal over the next few months is to transform this digitization push into a secure state."

Dr Judith Wunschik

Chief Cybersecurity Officer at Siemens Energy

"Cybersecurity is our daily responsibility in order to ensure our economic and social stability. Currently, our society is witnessing an exponential growth in attack attempts due to increasing virtual connectivity, both in the business and private spheres. Therefore, we need to support technologies and capabilities to fulfil our cybersecurity responsibilities far beyond the confines of our own organizations."

Dirk Backofen

Chairman of the Cyber Security Cluster Bonn e. V.

"We need a Germany-wide cyber security competence cluster to further expand the symbiosis of cooperation between science, politics and industry. An independent council of experts for cyber security, consisting of scientists from all existing competence clusters in Germany, can help to set important future impulses for decision-makers in politics and industry on the topics of cyber security and digital sovereignty."

Thomas Fetten

Head of Telekom Security at T-Systems International

"Although the number of attacks has increased, we do not attribute this to Covid19. Rather, we perceive a close correlation between increasing networking and the number of attacks. At the same time, the pandemic has led to an acceleration of digitalization in all sectors. The attack surface is increasing and IT as well as OT environments continue to intermingle, so that targeted cybersecurity measures will have to be intensified in the future."

Thomas Jarzombek

Commissioner for Digital Economy and Start-ups of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi)

"Companies must take IT security seriously. Cyber attacks cause billions in damage every year. With its ”IT Security in Business” initiative, the BMWi aims to educate small and medium-sized enterprises and to support them in the secure use of digitized processes and business models."

Martin Kaloudis

Chief Executive Officer of BWI GmbH

"Digital resilience cannot simply be retrofitted into an existing system. Rather, it is a systemic principle - and if it is missing, you only notice it when it’s already too late. If we want to learn something from COVID-19, then it's to invest early to be prepared for crises."

Prof. Christoph Meinel

CEO and Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute

"In recent months, the Corona pandemic has seen significantly more activity shift to the web. Even in the areas of education and health, there has been a welcome increase in digitization. Yet at the same time , this also means that we need to further intensify our efforts in IT security and continue to upgrade in terms of cybersecurity."

Michael Niemeier

Vice President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

"The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is an integral component of the German security architecture and, in this function, is also responsible for maintaining and safeguarding digital sovereignty. For us, this is both a mandate and an obligation for us to protect our democracy in the digital age."

Uwe Peter

Chief Executive Officer of Cisco Germany

"The rapid implementation of home office concepts has created new risks. With the peripheral expansion, company networks are becoming a central security instrument. Only automated, AI/ML- supported, and highly integrated security architectures can help manage the new threats."

Boris Ruge

Vice-Chairman of the Munich Security Conference

"We urgently need to envision the security environment of the 2030s. Under any plausible scenario, cyber, AI and autonomous systems will play an important role. The mix of capabilities to defend German and European interests will inevitably be a different one than today."