n both his presentations Andreas Walz urged greater awareness of information security issues. "Secure systems are of little use if employees do not do their part to protect sensitive data." Information security is an increasingly decisive competitive factor in today's world. The cyber security expectations of customers and users are becoming ever more exacting. "Start-ups can foster trust and transparency here through security certificates, among other things, since all security-related aspects of the IT and business processes as well as the infrastructure are very closely scrutinised in this context", Andreas Walz noted.
He also highlighted security considerations as a functional requirement. "Information is the gold of the twenty-first century. Ultimately, what is at stake for us is protecting valuable information against unauthorised access and manipulation and backing it up to safeguard against targeted attacks on the availability of servers and services. Every day brings a multitude of such attacks, more than an individual can imagine. The earlier the topic of security is incorporated into the development of business processes and applications, the better".
This makes it possible to integrate security mechanisms from the very outset and eliminate any vulnerabilities. "If security is built into the design and development process of an application at a sufficiently early stage, usability does not suffer", Andreas Walz explains.
Talanx Group Security attends four events of this type in the course of the year. Long-standing expertise and certification according to the highest security standard, namely ISO 27001, are hallmarks of Group Security and make it a sought-after source of advice, not only at start-up conferences and customer events of this nature but also in internal cooperation with the specialist units. Before cooperative ventures are initiated with start-ups, for example, the level of security is checked and a risk assessment performed by Group Security. This risk assessment assists the specialist unit in its decision for or against embarking on cooperation with a start-up.