1207, 2024

IT Security, Standards, and Compliance

René Pfeiffer/ July 12, 2024/ Call for Papers, Conference, Legal/ 0 comments

You can often see the classic divide between technical and compliance persons in information technology within teams or organisations. Writing guidelines and writing configurations for implementation seem very different, with no overlaps. In reality, everyone has procedures. While they might not be written or follow a standardized format, having your ways of doing things is crucial to succeed in IT. The same goes for security. Creating policy documents and describing procedures in a way that technical minds can actually use them is a challenge. There is a crossover with the profession of writers who are experts in conveying nonfiction stories. And this is the origin of the schism between technicians and the compliance world. Badly written policies are a security risk, because no one takes them seriously. The purpose of your procedure documentation is

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2406, 2015

Crypto Article: „Cornerstones of German Encryption Policy“ from 1999 are still in place

Sanna/ June 24, 2015/ Discussion, Security

We have some more translated news for you. In theory it is an article about policies and the process of law-making. In practice it concerns the use of encryption and everyone relying on service providers (mostly connected to the Internet, i.e. „cloud providers“). No matter how cool your start-up is and what its products aim to replace, information security will probably need a backdoor-free and working encryption technology as a core component. This is exactly why you cannot stay focused on the technology alone. Threats may come in the guise of new laws or regulations (think Wassenaar Arrangement). Matthias Monroy has some information about the official stance of the German government regarding the currently raging „crypto wars“. Enjoy! Federal Ministry of the Interior: The “Cornerstones of German encryption policy“ from 1999 still remain Source: netzpolitik.org Author: Matthias

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1606, 2015

Crypto Article: EU Economy needs secure Encryption

René Pfeiffer/ June 16, 2015/ Discussion, Security

Given the ongoing demonisation of cryptography we have translated an article for you, written by Erich Moechel, an ORF journalist. The use of encryption stays an important component for information security, regardless which version of the Crypto Wars is currently running. While most of the voices in news articles get the threat model wrong, there are still some sane discussions about the beneficial use of technology. The following article was published on the FM4 web site on 25 January 2015. Have a look and decide for yourself if the Crypto Wars have begun again (provided they came to an end at some point in the past). Maybe you work in this field and like to submit a presentation covering the current state of affairs. Let us know. EU Economy needs secure Encryption The EU technical bodies

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