February 2017 witnessed the inception of a special success story, one that has now led us to a fifth birthday celebration.  In this interview, Lars Steffen provides more insights about the platform’s development and the initial hurdles that had to be overcome, and gives us a look behind the scenes.

The starting signal has been given for the Car Repair 4.0 (Autowerkstatt 4.0) project. In it, a consortium of partner companies and research institutes is developing a Germany-wide platform for the trustworthy exchange of industry-specific vehicle data. With the help of the platform, car repair shops can use intelligent fault diagnosis systems

The Omicron wave is set to peak: In Germany, the incidence nationwide is higher than ever before. This makes the reliance of society and the economy on high-performance digital infrastructures even more important in the here and now. Such a reliance is the precise factor that the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of the eco Association, is campaigning for in the political and public spheres.

This year, it’s not just the Covid-19 pandemic, but also the threatening climate change which will continue to drive forward digital transformation in the economy and society. “Digitalisation is part of the solution to many challenges,” says eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme.

With the recently launched public Female Speakers Directory, eco aims to countervail male-dominated expert panels (Manels) and give female digital experts a place on the stages of tech events.

How can the potential of blockchain be harnessed for industry, for example as an independent charging ecosystem for electric cars? Leonard Dorlöchter, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of peaq, talks about this in an interview.

2022 could be a year of new beginnings and change if the new German government makes good on its plans for a strategic reorientation of digital policy, makes up for the digital policy failures of recent years and we all focus even more strongly on the enormous opportunities that digitalisation offers for many of the great challenges of our time.

Smart meters, refrigerators and connected cars - the German Telecommunications and Telemedia Data Protection Act (TTDSG) came into force on 1 December 2021. This brings German law into line with European requirements. In an eco Academy webinar, Dr Jens Eckhardt explained why the TTDSG goes far beyond being a new cookie directive.

Reliability means being tolerant of faults, and a robust foundation is an indispensable prerequisite for sustainable success: eco CEO, Harald A. Summa, takes a look back at the year 2021.

Since August 17, 2021, the Fair Consumer Contracts Act has been adopted, bringing with it a strengthening of consumer rights and correspondingly extended obligations for businesses.

As another Covid year draws to a close, let’s take the opportunity to review the digital policy highlights of this year! To begin with the brightest news of the year: In these Covid times, digital infrastructures, digital technologies and digital applications have kept things up and running, thereby contributing to combatting the pandemic by switching physical contacts to the virtual.

After four years in service, the eco Names & Numbers Steering Committee has now undergone the second change in its composition. Following on from the ICANN72 Virtual Annual General Meeting, the group now warmly welcomes five new incoming members: Elizabeth Bacon, Senior Director, Policy and Privacy, Public Interest...

eco is sharply critical of the fact that companies may be legally obliged to make their telecommunications equipment available for the imperceptible installation of government spying software and the redirection of data.

The German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and eco – Association of the Internet Industry cooperate within the framework of the corporate programme “Success Factor Family” to promote the work-life balance.

IoT security must no longer be a blind spot, contends Jan Wendenburg in an interview. Through networking with other eco members, the CEO of IoT Inspector aims to jointly pursue the identification of IoT vulnerabilities and compliance violations across the entire lifecycle of IoT devices.

A new study examines the effects of state restrictions on the gambling market in Germany, which is in a state of upheaval. Online gambling offers, in particular, are enjoying increasing popularity. Current surveys have come to the conclusion that three-quarters of the German population have already participated in commercial gambling offers (online and offline).

Certified Security Operations Center GmbH is a new member of the eco Association. Networking and cooperation are important in combating cyber crime, says Fred Schmidt, Principal Account Manager.

Regarding the Log4J vulnerability, Prof. Norbert Pohlmann, Board Member for IT Security at eco, sees the threat from cyber attacks as having hit a frightening new level. The German federal government must now do everything they can to quickly shut down the existing IT vulnerabilities.  

“Every IT operation needs to move towards service delivery, whether through in-house operations or third-party provision of IT resources,” says Andreas Weiss, Director at EuroCloud Deutschland. Together with other experts, Weiss has contributed his know-how to a German study by gridscale and Intel on cloudification for high-end SMEs.

Commenting on the Digital Services Act adopted today by the EU Member States, eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme says that the aim should be to maintain a clear line and not to overload the instrument with special regulations.

The change in the world of work is associated with challenges in terms of agility and security, says Dr Ebbinghaus, Managing Director of Enreach GmbH in an interview.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing rapidly, and everyday objects are more and more connected to the Internet and to other devices. It is increasingly difficult for consumers to judge which devices and services have which security features.

Fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic, experts expect record online retail sales for the 2021 holiday season. Unfortunately, this is also the high season for cyber criminals who lure bargain hunters themselves with fake shops.

The eco Association supports the DNS resolver Quad9 in its legal dispute against Sony. In this interview Klaus Landefeld, member of the eco board, explains why. Quad9 vs. Sony – what has this case been about since it first went before the Hamburg Regional Court in May 2021? Landefeld: Basically, it’s once again...

Even though the German traffic light coalition has decided not to set up an independent Ministry for Digitalisation, the future ministry structure opens up options and room for manoeuvre for a strong and future-oriented digitalisation policy.

Milestone for Gaia-X: The implementation phase for the Federation Services has now started. A nine-page white paper has been published to further explain the features and benefits of Federation Services as the foundation of Gaia-X. This is now available to all interested parties for download from the GXFS website.

DENIC eG, eco Association and the City of Hamburg as joint hosts ICANN coordinates the administration of names and addresses on the Internet Renewed application after meeting cancelled due to pandemic in 2020 Important decisions on core functions of the Internet could be taken in Germany in 2023: eco – Association...

The upcoming German federal government plans to produce a surveillance overview bill by the end of 2023 at the latest. This will create an important basis for more transparency on state surveillance powers – a move strongly welcomed by the eco Association.

The Eclipse Foundation is an independent, non-profit foundation based in Brussels that provides individuals and organisations with a mature, scalable and business-friendly environment for collaboration and innovation in open-source software.

For the first time in Germany, we have a coalition agreement which features a close link between the topics of digitalisation and sustainability, with this agreement presented by the SPD, Bündnis 90/The Greens and the FDP on Wednesday, 24 November 2021.