President of the Federal Office for Information Security
BSI president Arne Schönbohm also sees the urgency of countering threats in cyberspace. "We have 390,000 new malware programs every day, and worldwide we see 800 million," he said, pointing out that pre-installed malware on smartphones provides a new dimension of risk. Following the BSI's warnings and discussions with Amazon, the affected devices were removed from the product line - a success, according to Schönbohm.
"It's about us checking and analyzing very carefully in the digitized world," said Schönbohm, who sees his agency as a "designer of information security in digitization, for the state, the economy and society." He said it is important to enable transparent procedures and to set standards. "Regardless of who the providers are - the same standards and security conditions apply to everyone. That's a basic principle for successful international cooperation."
Consumers should be able to make a conscious choice for safety. This included not only safety certificates but also behavioral training. In the long term, he said, the resilience of the German population must be strengthened, with European and international partners.
