MEDIA ALERT
Suppliers and manufacturers must guarantee that their hardware components are free of backdoors
German government introduces no-spy declaration for hardware
Aachen, March 29, 2016—On March 17, 2016, Germany introduced new procurement conditions for hardware intended for the public sector. At their heart is a mandatory “technical no-spy declaration”. From now on, IT service providers and hardware manufacturers must guarantee that the hardware they supply is free of backdoors. The regulations are mandatory for the federal authorities in Germany, but they are also applied by the individual German states and local authorities.
Ralf Koenzen, founder and Managing Director of LANCOM Systems GmbH, welcomes these new regulations: “Backdoors represent a real threat to the integrity, confidentiality and authenticity of data. Trusted communications and effective protection from eavesdropping, tampering and sabotage can only be guaranteed if the IT solutions in question are free from paths that grant secret access to third parties. However, the NSA scandal has shown that we cannot take this for granted. Not only companies, but also state networks are at genuine risk from backdoors. We at LANCOM Systems GmbH expressly welcome the decision of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to exclude products from public procurement for which no guarantee can be given about their freedom from backdoors. This concurs completely with our own expectations as a manufacturer of trusted network infrastructure products.
The new procurement conditions (EVB-IT) mean that, for the first time, IT service providers a required to guarantee that the hardware they supply “[...] is free of functions that compromise the integrity, confidentiality and availability of hardware, other hardware and/or software, or data, so adversely affecting the confidentiality or security interests of the customer [...]”. These new conditions represent an important milestone towards greater digital sovereignty here in Germany.
We at LANCOM Systems have for years publicly pledged to keep our products free from any hidden access paths. A written declaration is available on our website.”
In May 2015 and on behalf of LANCOM Systems, the analysts techconsult conducted a representative survey on the subject of “Digital Sovereignty” among more than 400 German specialists and executives. 85% of the decision-makers surveyed in business and the Administration saw backdoors as being a threat to digital sovereignty. About 83% said that the German government should place more reliance on trusted ICT solutions to improve its digital sovereignty.
The report titled “Digital sovereignty – opinion in German businesses & government” is available for download from the LANCOM website:
lancom.de/fileadmin/pdf/presse/2015-7_Studie_Digitale_Souveraenitaet.pdf
The LANCOM Systems declaration about the freedom from backdoors is also available for download from the LANCOM website:
lancom.de/pdf/company/LANCOM_Declaration_of_Trustworthiness.pdf
LANCOM Systems background:
LANCOM Systems GmbH is the leading German manufacturer of reliable, innovative network solutions for business customers. LANCOM's two business units, VPN Network Connectivity and Wireless LAN, offer professional users secure, flexible infrastructure solutions for local-area and multi-site networks. The entire core product range is developed and manufactured in Germany. In addition, LANCOM also provides VPN solutions certified by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for the protection of particularly sensitive networks and critical infrastructures (EPCIP) against cyber attacks. LANCOM Systems has its headquarters in Würselen near Aachen, Germany, and other offices are located throughout Europe. Customers include small and medium-sized enterprises, government agencies, institutions, and major corporations from Germany, Europe and increasingly worldwide.
Your editorial staff contact:
Kristian Delfs
International PR Manager
LANCOM Systems GmbH
+49 (0)1743 469 170
Kristian.delfs@lancom.de