President of the Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector
Wilfried Karl sees cloud services and law enforcement with digital forensics as important fields of development for his agency, which sees itself as a cyber-service provider for German security authorities.
In his keynote address, Karl warned that Germany and Europe are losing out: "All the market leaders and technology drivers are located outside Europe." That also applies to online search tools. Systems for tracking are also not being developed in Germany.
"You have to ask yourself the question: Where do the capabilities of our security authorities come from in a crisis?" This doesn't have to be a military conflict, he said— it can even be sufficient if export regulations change. "If an important forensic tool is no longer allowed to be exported to Germany within a very short time, this affects the work of the security authorities," Karl cited as an example. More investments in cybersecurity are needed—yet these alone are not enough. "We need an exchange of more know-how between authorities and industry," Karl said. Also because experts and specialists are hard to find and change frequently.
