Press Release 2018-561
German businesses expect clear governance for IT security and digital sovereignty
Representative survey regarding the German government’s digital policy
Aachen, November 28, 2018 – A current survey among business decision makers regarding the digital policy of Germany’s grand coalition shows strong agreement for state regulations when it comes to IT security and digital sovereignty. In the representative study, conducted by opinion research company YouGov on behalf of German infrastructure manufacturer LANCOM Systems, the vast majority of those surveyed is in favor of measures such as legal update obligations (92 percent), baseline security standards for Internet-enabled products (89 percent) and more resolute action to be taken against manufacturers of non-secure products (86 percent). Targeted promotion of digital sovereignty also found wide approval: 85 percent are of the opinion that the German government must do more in this area.
Business decision makers in Germany expect more regulation from their government in the areas of IT security, digital sovereignty and infrastructure. This is the core finding from a survey commissioned by LANCOM Systems, which was conducted in October this year. For the representative study, the opinion research company YouGov interviewed 500 decision makers from German business.
IT security: businesses call for more transparency, liability and guaranteed updates from manufacturers
The vast majority of business decision makers desire guaranteed security updates: 92 percent of those surveyed are in favor of a legal obligation for manufacturers to close security flaws via software updates. There is similarly widespread agreement (89 percent) for introducing compulsory baseline security standards at EU level to keep non-secure products out of the market effective. The call for tightening manufacturer liability for damage caused by vulnerabilities is just as high. A key concern for those surveyed is also a regulation to prevent access by third countries to the data of German citizens in the cloud: 88 percent would like legal protection against this.
Digital sovereignty – not without industrial policy measures
Almost 5 out of 6 business decision makers (85 percent) are of the opinion that the German government must do more to guarantee the digital sovereignty of industry and public administration – e.g. through targeted use of trusted technologies from Germany and Europe. 83 percent of those surveyed are even in favor of giving German or European solutions preference for public investments, even if changes in public procurement law would be necessary to do so. 83 percent also view industrial policy measures as an important lever for strengthening the domestic digital sector. To protect European data from being compromised by foreign services, there is high agreement (83 percent) for “Schengen Routing”. Here, inner-European data traffic is routed exclusively via servers and networks within the EU.
Radio spectrum policy: Wi-Fi as an equal player in frequency allocations
In addition to the central importance of IT security and digital sovereignty, the availability of high-performance Wi-Fi networks is also a key concern of business decision makers. 84 percent are of the opinion that Wi-Fi in private households and enterprises, as well as public hotspots, should be treated with the same importance by policymakers as cellular networks, e.g. when allocating frequencies. 82 percent would like broadband Internet and Wi-Fi provided in schools, financed by federal funding, if necessary.
Ralf Koenzen, LANCOM founder and Managing Partner: “German businesses would like considerably more regulation from the German government in the area of IT security. Enterprises also wish for much more resolute governance to strengthen our digital sovereignty. In this area, we must also talk about difficult subjects, such as industrial policy measures and public procurement law.”
About the survey
The data used is based on an online survey by YouGov Deutschland GmbH, in which 500 business decision makers took part between October 19, 2018 and October 25, 2018. The results were weighted and are representatively derived from the proportion of employees per size of enterprise.
A detailed summary of the survey, as well as corresponding infographics, are available on the LANCOM website.
LANCOM Systems background:
LANCOM Systems GmbH is the leading German manufacturer of networking solutions for business customers and the public sector. LANCOM offers professional users secure, reliable and future-proof infrastructure solutions for local-area and multi-site networks (WAN, LAN, WLAN), as well as centralized network management based on software-defined networking technologies (SD-WAN, SD-LAN, SD-WLAN). The LANCOM routers, gateways and WLAN solutions are developed and manufactured in Germany, and a selection of the VPN portfolio is certified by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for the protection of particularly sensitive networks and critical infrastructures (EPCIP). LANCOM Systems has its headquarters in Würselen near Aachen, Germany. Customers include small and medium-sized enterprises, government agencies, institutions, and major corporations from Germany, Europe and, increasingly, worldwide.
Contact LANCOM Systems GmbH:
Eckhart Traber
Mobile: +49 (0)172 9360127
press@lancom.eu
www.lancom.eu