Hasso-Plattner-Institut
 

Dirk Backofen

The head of Telekom Security at T-Systems International would like to counter the "army of bad guys," as Dirk Backofen calls all globally active cybercriminals, with an "army of good guys.” Backofen's main argument is that no one is capable of tackling the issue of cyber security alone. The situation is deteriorating noticeably.  While an average of 4 million cyberattacks were launched a year ago, today there are an average of 12 million within 24 hours; on a recent day in June, Backofen's team even registered a new high of 15 million attacks. Although the overwhelming majority are easy to identify and fend off, T-Systems faces three to eight unknown attack patterns every day. Recently, and for the first time, among them VOIP attacks.

For this reason, Backofen has drawn up an "8-point program for a successful digital future." Among other things, he calls for the consistent implementation of the "Security by Design" principle, which sees the security of a product not as a feature, but as the starting point of development. In addition to the product development process, "security by design" should become a criterion in invitations to tender, said Backofen.