Intelligent Security and Privacy for an Innovative Region (INSPIRE)

Hardly a day goes by without headlines about attacks on IT systems and data leaks. Public authorities, companies, operators of critical infrastructures and now (directly or indirectly) every citizen is affected. At the same time, more and more areas are being digitalized - with the aim of ensuring and expanding the industrial lead or out of commercial interest. This happens without adequate consideration of the associated security problems which, combined with the embedding in increasingly complex networks, are becoming difficult to control and are associated with a potential for possible damage. If exploited, it can harm rather than benefit our society. Regulations, such as the IT security law and the EU data protection regulation, usually only come into force when technologies, such as the increasing shift of services into the cloud, have already been adopted in such a way that they are difficult to reconcile with them in retrospect. This is why solutions are needed that allow IT security and data protection in networks to be subsequently assessed and enhanced in order to establish conformity with the regulations and thus systematically reduce the vulnerability of existing and future technologies in our digitalized society. For this purpose, the INSPIRE project is developing four methods for evaluating and increasing IT security and data protection that are largely passive and independent of the specific network components. Since from a societal point of view networks of power distribution, power generation and public authorities are particularly important for protection, our methods are designed, developed and tested in the project on the basis of the three application fields: Smart Grid, Digital City and Industry 4.0 in power generation. "Cottbus is the heart and motor of structural change" according to the Minister President of Brandenburg. The BTU's chair of IT Security wants to make its contribution to ensuring that this happens in secure and sustainable way.