The it-sa trade fair in Nuremberg is one of the largest IT security trade fairs in Germany and one of the most important trade fairs worldwide in its field. The three-day fair focuses on products and services related to IT security.
This year alone, it-sa set a new visitor record with 19,500 trade visitors from 55 countries and had around 800 exhibitors from 30 countries. The significant growth of it-sa reveals a clear trend in the field of IT security. This year’s trade fair and the incredible rush for it-sa 2024 clearly highlighted the importance of IT security.
BREDEX Experts at it-sa
From October 10 to 12, 2023, Ron Kneffel, Janine Richter, Julian Stumpe, Alexander Utermöhlen, and Sophie Powierski from the Data Protection/Information Security team represented BREDEX in Nuremberg. Located at the Bitkom joint booth, they found excellent conditions for engaging in dialogue with exhibitors and trade fair visitors. The BREDEX experts were on hand to answer questions about BREDEX and engage in intensive discussions with potential customers and applicants. Once the hustle and bustle of the trade fair had come to an end in the evening, the participants were able to round off the day at various events on the exhibition grounds or in Nuremberg city center.
A highlight on Wednesday was the presentation by Ron Kneffel and Donald Ortmann at the Bitkom joint stand. The topic was cybersecurity in Germany against the backdrop of a shortage of skilled workers, new legislation, and innovations. In addition to this exciting presentation, Ron Kneffel was also active in his role as chairman of the CISO Alliance. In the morning, he moderated the cooperation workshop on the state of the art in IT security together with attorney Karsten U. Bartels, chairman of TeleTrusT. At this workshop, participants were able to discuss the further development of the TeleTrusT guidelines and engage in interesting conversations with each other. On Tuesday, Ron Kneffel was already in action in his other role as a member of the board of IBCRM e.V. and, together with Frank Fischer, the CEO of IBCRM e.V., presented this year’s Resilience Award 2023. On Thursday, Ron Kneffel continued with a panel discussion on the important topic of “Many paths, one goal: How women are conquering IT security.”
Overall, the three days were a very impressive experience for the trade fair participants and enabled them to further expand their networks and visibly represent BREDEX in the IT security sector.
Trends in the Data Protection and Information Security Industry
The steady growth in the industry must be viewed with a critical eye, despite all the gold rush hype. Where there are more customers, there must also be more competent employees who can meet the needs of those customers. IT security faces the major problem of a shortage of skilled workers. There are not enough trained experts who are capable of producing a high-quality product for interested customers.
The keyword here is experts; unfortunately, the proportion of women in cyber security is still too low. Creating a balanced ratio of men and women in IT security and thus counteracting the shortage of skilled workers should be one of the top priorities for the future.
Security as a Service?
The exhibitors at the trade fair are promoting one clear favorite among the advertised products: “Security as a Service.” This is being advertised with a whole range of buzzwords. If you take a more critical look at this trend, it could be described as a product that is capable of solving all IT security problems in one fell swoop. There is no differentiation, nor do companies position themselves according to their actual core competencies. Rather, it seems that everyone is capable of solving all problems. However, this type of marketing creates more uncertainty among those responsible than it generates security.
It is not just about one solution, but about bringing organization, people, and technology into harmony and empowering customers to build proportionate detective, reactive, preventive, and predictive capabilities to protect information.
Autor
Ron Kneffel
Ron Kneffel ist seit mehr als 20 Jahren Experte für Informationssicherheit, IT-Notfall- und Riskmanagement. Außerdem ist er zertifizierter Datenschutz- und Informationssicherheitsberater und in diesen Funktionen als Berater und externer CISO tätig. Seit 2022 ist er zusätzlich Vorstandsvorsitzender des CISO Alliance e.V.
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