The representative trend study conducted by Deloitte and the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research provides information on the views of 104 political representatives from the federal, state and European parliaments, and 404 economic players.
The results in brief: “While the participants from both groups assess the nature and severity of the current top risks largely similarly, there are discrepancies in detailed aspects. It is worth noting that cooperation on cyber issues between the two groups themselves is rated as insufficient. However, there is agreement that improving cyber security in Germany starts with each of us personally and is a task for society as a whole. Only a heightened awareness of the problem and increased digital competence on everyone’s part will create a reliable basis for better securing the digital world”.
“Although complete risk elimination is never possible, protection against increasing data misuse starts in the minds and on the devices of users,” said Marius von Spreti, Partner and Cyber Risk Leader at Deloitte, commenting on the findings.
Cyber Security: the four most important areas for action
- Strengthening Internet and media literacy, as the basis of a proactive communications strategy that intensively monitors diverse social media channels and combats disinformation early and in a targeted manner using digital tools.
- Promoting Germany’s and Europe’s technological independence through targeted government support for research and development and strategic new coverage of new cyber agency task areas. A European legal framework that regulates market access for non-European key technologies and ensures minimum standards within Europe must therefore be developed so that influences of EU-foreign companies on companies in security-relevant areas can be limited and exports of such technology can be monitored.
- Intensification of cooperation between business and politics in the form of suitable framework conditions and targeted information about economic cyber concerns, as well as the inclusion of the concerns of social actors in the (political) discourse.
- Balanced regulation. The quality of measure implementation must be realized by ensuring an effective framework system, such as increased centralization of implementation.
The entire Cyber Security Report 2021 can be found here.
