Germans do not adequately back up their photos and videos from family holidays or family celebrations on their smartphones. According to a representative survey of 2,506 Germans conducted by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, only 22.5 per cent use cloud services for storing private media.

CentralNic’s Rishi Maudhub on the ICANN Annual General Meetings, gTLDs and DNS Abuse.  

Digitalisation offers the opportunity to make business processes more efficient. In an eco-member interview, Andreas Kupper reports on how Kupper IT harnesses this potential to enhance the value chain.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today delivered a State of the Union speech, highlighting that Europe must be a pioneer in AI and stand for transparent, ethical development. eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme is of the opinion that the Commission President focused too excessively on the potential dangers of AI and digital technologies.

For the second time, the leading minds of the Gaia-X scene met in Berlin on 5 and 6 September 2023 for GXFS Connect. While in 2022 the focus was still on the idea behind the initiative and the start of the German funded projects, this year more than 40 speakers discussed concrete progress in the development of a European data ecosystem.

In the run-up to the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, we interviewed Giovanni Coppa, eco Competence Group Leader Mobility and Head of Data Center and Cloud Innovation at WOBCOM GmbH, about his expectations for the trade fair, and his take on current and future challenges in the field of Smart City and Smart Mobility.

We spoke to Dr. Michael Lipka, Senior Manager Technology Strategy, Huawei Technologies Germany, about the crucial role of digital infrastructures and wireless technologies for Smart Home use cases. On 12 September 2023, the eco Networks and IoT Competence Groups  will meet at the Huawei OpenLab in Ismaning to discuss groundbreaking topics of current and future Smart Home applications under the motto "Digital Infrastructure as the Basis of Smart Home Applications" (a German-language event).

Following the long-awaited ruling by the European Court of Justice on 22 September last year, which stated that the German regulations on data retention are incompatible with EU law, the German Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has now also issued its verdict. eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme calls on the German federal government on the occasion of the ruling: “The German federal government should now finally seize the opportunity to set a political course and initiate the repeal of data retention.”

How do you become future-proof as an employer? On 23 August 2023, the New Work Competence Group discovered solutions to this question at the summer event in the Microsoft office in Cologne.

Digital services and technologies are the driving thrust for the transport turnaround. 45.4 per cent of Germans attribute a decisive role to digital mobility services in shaping the traffic turnaround. The respondents place great hope above all in artificial intelligence and thus intelligent traffic management.

The German Federal Ministry of the Interior aims to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructures with the KRITIS Umbrella Act, which is currently being coordinated between government departments. For the first time, this act seeks to establish the nationwide uniform regulations for the physical protection of critical facilities, which are to be implemented in German law as a result of the European CER Directive.

Founder and former CEO Harald A. Summa was appointed Honorary President of the eco Association – Association of the Internet Industry on 29 August 2023 during the eco Annual General Meeting in Cologne. Harald A. Summa retired from eco's operational management at the end of July 2023. Since its foundation in 1995, Summa...

The coalition agreement and the digitalisation strategy adopted by the German federal government a year ago not only promised nationwide broadband coverage via the 5G mobile network and fibre optic lines. However, implementation continues to lag behind. eco and other associations from the digital industry call on the government to “decisively drive forward digitalisation” in Germany.

Many cities and regions have their own top-level domains such as .hamburg, .koeln or .nrw. Such geographic top-level domains or geoTLDs, which represent a regional area, have been available in Germany since 2014. Since then, hundreds of thousands of citizens and companies have reserved their personal Internet address with a geographic domain extension.

Combining being green and being digital to act more responsibly towards the climate, environment and people has emerged as a factor in competitive markets. How data can be used to achieve environmental goals. And how the TANGO project aims to achieve optimal performance with lower hardware requirements. Read more on tango-project.eu.

The new Data Strategy has been finalised by the German federal government and could be adopted by the cabinet today. eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme is of the opinion that uniform and legally secure handling of data is essential for all data-based business models, which is why the German federal government’s Data Strategy is long since overdue.

More CO2 savings and optimised traffic control through artificial intelligence as well as vehicles that communicate with the traffic infrastructure such as traffic lights: This is the dream scenario of German motorists with regard to digital technologies and services in the automotive sector. This is the result of a survey conducted by Civey on behalf of eco at the end of July 2023 among 2,500 car users – on the occasion of the IAA in Munich at the beginning of September.

In presenting the German Digital Strategy a year ago, the German federal government's aim was to create a digital awakening. However, a year into the Digital Strategy, the majority of the population in Germany believes that the federal government has not yet made much progress in the area of digital transformation. This has been displayed by a recent representative survey conducted by the market and opinion research institute Civey on behalf of eco Association.

Anne Hennig is a Research Associate at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and supervises the INSPECTION research project. At this year’s Internet Security Days (ISD) on 21 and 22 September, she will give a presentation on the project. Together with her colleague Dr Peter Mayer, she explains in an eco interview what INSEPCTION is and why it can be an effective addition to already existing IT security approaches.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) was passed in the EU Parliament in November 2022 and is intended to set the standards for a safer and more open digital space for users and a level playing field for companies within the EU in the coming years.  Among other insights, eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme has the following to say: “Internet service providers are already combatting illegal content on their platforms out of their own interest."

On 12 September 2023, the eco Networks and IoT Competence Groups will come together at the Huawei OpenLab in Ismaning to discuss groundbreaking key topics of current and future smart home applications under the motto of "Digital Infrastructure as the Foundation of Smart Home Applications". In the run-up to the event, we’ve had the opportunity to talk to Lorenz Grehlich, Head of Planning and Implementation at M-net.

Digital ecosystems contribute to achieving climate goals. Ubirch assists with the implementation and ensures transparency and trust – as reported by Ubirch CEO Stephan Noller in this interview.

There is a lot of room for improvement in the teaching of digital skills in German schools: 88.1 per cent of Germans would like to see better digital education in schools, but a breakthrough is not to be expected with the start of the new school year 2023/2024.

Tarek Nemri is an IT Security Consultant at plusserver gmbh, where he advises clients on IT security solutions and the associated processes. At this year’s Internet Security Days, he will give a presentation on “Digitalisation, data sovereignty and the cloud – your chance, surely and securely!” and tells us in an eco interview how cloud services can be important in terms of IT security.

With growing virtual attack surfaces, preventive protection solutions help avoid damage from DDoS attacks or bad bots, says Thomas Wagner of Myra Security. As part of the Internet Security Days (ISD) 2023, he talks about DDoS emergency onboarding.

Whether in the supermarket, restaurant or at the bakery: one in four people hold their mobile phone or smartwatch against the card reader to pay. The latest eco/Civey study shows that the number of mobile payment users has doubled in the last four years.

The GXFS Connect programme, which will take place on 5 and 6 September 2023 in Berlin, has now been finalised: Over the course of discussion panels, presentations and numerous networking opportunities, participants will exchange experiences and know-how – for example, on the Gaia-X funding and lighthouse projects, as well as on GXFS implementation strategies.

Realtime Register & eco’s topDNS Initiative recently held a third series of topDNS best practice webinars, showcasing what the domain name industry is doing to fight DNS abuse.

Dr Silvia Knittl is one of the Cyber & Privacy Directors at PwC Germany and leads the Enterprise Security Architects team. She supports clients in activating their cyber capabilities and manages security transformation projects. At this year’s Internet Security Days (ISD), she will be presenting on the Zero Trust approach.

Digitalisation helps to use resources according to demand and thus save energy. In an eco member interview, Mario Schröder from Thermokon Sensortechnik GmbH explains how this can be achieved.