Sharing and securely storing data is a must in the mobility industry – this was the consensus of the participants and speakers at the webinar jointly organised by the eco Association’s Mobility CG and Car Repair 4.0.

Five years after the General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) came into force on 25 May, most consumers in Germany are making a conscious decision to protect their personal data on the Internet. This is shown by a representative Civey survey commissioned by eco – Association of the Internet Industry.

Recent innovations and developments in AI have intensified the debate around data protection. Prof. Dr Anne Riechert, Board Member of the AI Frankfurt Rhein-Main Society gives a first insight into the topic and presents the activities of the AI Frankfurt Rhein-Main Society.

According to a representative Civey survey commissioned by eco – Association of the Internet Industry, many Germans say that the Internet industry is making a major contribution to better shaping our future.

Critical infrastructures are of considerable importance for many spheres of our societal life. Since the beginning of the year, the protection of critical infrastructures has been newly regulated by the NIS2 Directive and the CER Directive, meaning that the regulatory field for critical infrastructures is also growing. This prompted eco to set up the KRITIS Competence Group at a constituent meeting last Tuesday.

The EU Commission’s proposal for a regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse has sparked much discussion and severe criticism since its publication in May 2022.

It is  important that the AI Act clearly addresses potential risks, but in order to harness the opportunities of the technology, we need room for innovation. Today, Europe is already lagging behind in the development of AI systems. This threatens not only Europe’s technological sovereignty, but also the competitiveness of the entire economy in Germany.

At our Mobility Competence Group meeting,“Urban Mobility – Interaction of IoT and Mobility for the Implementation of Mobility Solutions”, eco entered into discussion with various experts from the mobility and IoT environment on the topics of data generation, data usage, data management and data policy. Together with our host, WOBCOM in Wolfsburg, and our CG Mobility Leader Giovanni Coppa, we arrived at exciting content and a highly productive CG meeting.

Many companies underestimate the threat posed by cyber attacks, even though experts believe that the threat is growing – this was the result of the eco IT Security Survey 2023. eco IT Security Survey 2023. As a result, cybersecurity should be a top priority in all companies.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany calls for data centres to be included in the current discussion on the introduction of industry electricity prices. The German federal government should recognise the importance of the industry as the backbone of digitalisation and part of the solution in achieving climate goals.

The importance of IT security has never been higher, says SySS founder and Managing Director Sebastian Schreiber. In an eco member interview, he talks about how companies can protect themselves from dangerous ransomware attacks.

When selecting cloud services for corporate IT, experts are particularly concerned about the trusted handling of data. This is shown by a Civey survey of 250 IT experts commissioned by eco – Association of the Internet Industry. According to the survey, the most important criterion when selecting cloud services in corporate IT is an encryption offer from the cloud provider (41.5 per cent). What are also seen to be very important are quality and security certificates (36.6 per cent) and the compatibility of the service with the GDPR.

The ICANN76 Community Forum was recently hosted in the coast resort of Cancún, Mexico, and took place from 11 to 16 March 2023. Which topics were under discussion and what insights emerged? This was covered at the subsequent virtual ICANN76 Readout on 28 March, hosted by eco – Association of the Internet Industry and ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

The eco Competence Group Networks is offering an exchange on laser safety on 5 May from 11.00-12.30, where laser expert, Dr Eric ten Have, Development Associate at Corning Optical Communications, will share his expertise.

Decision-makers from politics and the Internet industry met at this year's Internet Policy Forum on 25 April in the Microsoft Atrium Berlin to discuss the lever projects, fields of action and flagships of the Digital Strategy.

The career opportunities in the tech industry are diverse and we can finally say goodbye to the “clichéd nerd” image. Nonetheless, women are still underrepresented in IT. How do we inspire young talents for the diverse career opportunities in tech? On the occasion of Girls’ Day, we spoke to Kiki Radicke, Head of People & Culture at Adacor, about working and career opportunities in the tech industry, and how IT companies can succeed in inspiring more girls and women to enter tech.

The digitalisation of the workplace – for example through mobile working options – can contribute to improving the work-life balance. This is the view of around two out of three Germans (61.2 per cent), according to a representative Civey survey commissioned by eco – Association of the Internet Industry on the occasion of Labour Day on 1 May.

On 8 and 9 May, registries, registrars, resellers as well as service providers and investors from the domains industry will again meet in Stockholm for the Nordic Domain Days 2023. The eco initiative topDNS is once again a partner of the conference and will be involved in the programme on the second day with the focus topic “Policy & Tech”:

From 17 to 21 April 2023, around 130,000 visitors in Hannover could see first-hand just how well Gaia-X has taken off. During the trade fair, a large number of interested visitors came to the joint “Industry 4.0 platform” stand to learn how the Gaia-X Federation Services (GXFS) and many other Gaia-X projects work in practice.

The Names & Numbers Forum of the eco Association brings together more than 140 companies from the global domain industry. The Steering Committee of the eco Competence Group is now pleased to welcome three new members.

InterNetX and Sedo.com present the Global Domain Report 2023, their annual assessment of the state of the domain industry. The domain industry is constantly evolving, keeping up with trends in our society and changing market conditions. The report shows how the business of domain registrations and aftermarket sales remains...

To take stock of the German federal government’s digital policy, the Network Policy Forum will take place on 25 April with German Digital Minister Volker Wissing. In advance, eco Chair Süme formulates three core requirements for the implementation of the Digital Strategy.

According to a representative survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, 23.9 per cent of respondents say that the teaching of digital skills in schools has actually deteriorated over the last three years.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany voices criticism on the draft for a new Energy Efficiency Act adopted yesterday by the German Federal Cabinet. While this act sets out the right objectives, the obligations it imposes on data centres to release their waste heat cannot be implemented in such a format and could lead to data centres relocating to neighbouring European countries.

Data-based disease detection and treatment – Europe is on the way to a Health Union. How Gaia-X lets us live longer independently. And why artificial intelligence, vitamin D and calcium are enough to save billions in treatment costs.

According to eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme: “The German federal government Data Strategy must clarify open questions related to the use of data in an economic context.”

eco Survey: 83.7 per cent of IT experts believe that the German industry is in a worse position than its international competitors. 55 per cent complain about bureaucratic hurdles in digitalisation projects in German industry.

The Mobility Competence Group will meet on 26 April in Wolfsburg (a German-language event). In the run-up to the event, we spoke to Kai Meinke, Co-Founder and Business Lead at deltaDAO, about the importance and establishment of sovereign identity management and Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) for the mobility of the future, current developments and use cases in the Gaia-X 4 Future Mobility moveID project, as well as his keynote speech on the topic of “Move ID – Opportunities for a more transparent, secure and decentralised data management”.  

The current cybersecurity situation in Germany remains tense, according to the prevailing opinion of IT experts. 93 per cent rate the general threat situation as high or very high, while only about 7 per cent of those participating in the current IT Security Survey by eco – Association of the Internet Industry assume that the threat situation will remain unchanged.

How is it possible for special characters or characters of other languages to be universally accepted on the Internet? The Universal Acceptance Technical Training Day, which is organised by eco Association and the geoTLD Group, provides assistance, explains Ronald Schwärzler in an interview.