Regarding the hacker attack against German politicians and celebrities made public today, Prof. Dr. Norbert Pohlmann, Board Member for IT Security at eco – Association of the Internet Industry, states:
“Such a criminal attack against personal data can affect any Internet user today. Encryption is an effective means to prevent this kind of attack and data theft. Therefore, the German federal government should more strongly support and drive forward the the development and dissemination of user-friendly encryption technologies. However, the controversial measures already used today in the context of law enforcement, such as backdoors, zero day exploits, and state Trojans, impede the effectiveness of encryption and the development of secure IT systems. The federal government should therefore distance itself decisively from such measures and instead encourage stronger initiatives in industry and public administration for the development of secure and robust IT systems, in order to offer criminals a smaller attack surface in future.” Further beneficial factors for the improvement of IT and data security include the appropriate sensitization and training of all citizens and in particular all staff in companies, public administration, and politics, for example with regard to the use of antivirus software, firewalls, and secure passwords, as well as the regular patching of systems, Pohlmann adds.
