Germany is trailing behind other European nations in terms of cybersecurity preparedness, as revealed in a recent international comparison. This comes amidst a significant surge in phishing incidents, which have seen a sixteen-fold global increase since 2021. Identity theft instances have also tripled in the same timeframe. Germany’s response to this escalating threat landscape is underwhelming, ranking 18th out of 61 countries, lagging notably behind France and Spain. Valentin Weber from DGAP’s Centre for Geopolitics, Geo-economics and Technology emphasized the need for Germany to enhance its capabilities by learning from global cybersecurity leaders like the US, UK, and Israel.
Dr. Vera Demary from the Cologne Institute for Economic Research highlighted that cybersecurity is an ongoing major task for companies. The report indicates that while one-third of German employees aged 16-70 believe IT security is crucial, 84% wouldn’t want to work for a company that undervalues IT. Interestingly, 62% of Germans wouldn’t prefer companies with overly stringent IT security regulations. The demand for IT specialists, especially in security, is soaring, but there’s a persistent shortage of skilled professionals in the country.
In sectors like mechanical engineering, the challenge isn’t the number of IT specialists but their skillset. Despite the digital transformation, the sector is not adequately addressing IT security competence. Steffen Zimmermann from VDMA’s competence centre for industrial security suggests making cybersecurity mandatory in all engineering university courses. He also believes that while there’s an increase in IT budget allocation for security, it remains disproportionately high in the engineering sector. To address the acute shortage of cybersecurity experts, Weber advises making Germany a more appealing destination for the global cybersecurity industry.
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Source: EURACTIV