• Experts from business and politics focus on hybrid threats
• More than 150 participants at this year’s STATE OF SECURITY at the Allianz Forum Berlin
• Threats posed by hybrid risks are becoming increasingly complex
• Friedrich P. Kötte: ‘Resilience against digital and physical attacks is crucial for Germany as a business location’

What digital threats does the German economy face? How do critical infrastructure facilities such as the Port of Hamburg and Deutsche Bahn deal with hybrid threats? And how relevant is holistic corporate protection that takes both digital and physical threats into account? High-ranking experts from politics, business and security authorities provided information and discussed these and other security topics yesterday at STATE OF SECURITY in front of more than 150 participants.

“While organised crime and foreign intelligence services have long been operating holistically, i.e. using the entire range of attack tools, the protection concepts of many companies and public institutions are still clearly too selective. And this despite the fact that the diverse hybrid threats have been literally on the table for a long time,” emphasised Friedrich P. Kötter, member of the Management Board of the KÖTTER Security Group and host of the STATE OF SECURITY security conference at the Allianz Forum in Berlin. The security expert warned representatives from business, government and politics: ‘Resilience against digital and physical attacks is crucial for Germany as a business location. Comprehensive protection can only be achieved through a holistic approach followed by a 360-degree security solution.’

Damage caused by digital and analogue economic crime in Germany

The study ‘Wirtschaftsschutz 2024’ (Economic Protection 2024), published by BITKOM, the most important digital association and largest European think tank on digital issues, confirms the relevance of a holistic approach. According to the study, two-thirds of German companies feel that cyber attacks threaten their existence, and eight out of ten companies in Germany are actually affected by data theft, espionage or sabotage.

According to the study, classic analogue attacks, such as the theft of physical documents, components and machines, have also increased significantly. The resulting damage has grown to a record sum of around 267 billion euros – an increase of almost 30 percent in the last two years alone.

Speakers agree: only holistic solutions strengthen resilience against increasing risks

To counter the numerous digital and physical threats, holistic solutions are needed that take all areas into account – this was the consensus among the experts present. This was also confirmed by Prof. Dr. Harald Olschok from the Berlin School of Economics and Law, who moderated the panel discussion ‘Holistic corporate protection: relevance, status quo and outlook’ at the event: “Optimal corporate security cannot be achieved with isolated measures. Only holistic solutions can create strong resilience against the growing analogue and digital threats. Such holistic concepts must in turn be based on an individual risk analysis and should be implemented by well-coordinated teams and with coordinated trades. Not every security company is able to meet these complex requirements.”

Markus Horschig (Hamburg Port Authority / operator of the Port of Hamburg) and Patrick Theuer (Deutsche Bahn AG) described in their presentations how Germany’s busiest port and the operator of the longest rail network in Europe deal with hybrid threats in their everyday business. The latter explained: ‘Infrastructures such as the railway system require not only technical redundancies, but also anti-fragile systems with trained procedures, holistic concepts and all-hazard-based strategies.’

Resilience determines the survival of companies in an emergency

In his closing remarks, Friedrich P. Kötter once again emphasised the relevance of resilience: ‘Companies can only achieve maximum resilience if all areas of corporate security are coordinated and interact with each other. The entrepreneur continued: ’In an emergency, the degree of this corporate resilience determines how and perhaps even whether a company survives a digital or hybrid attack.”