Botnet threat
December 8, 2009
Germany's position as a technological leader needs to be improved - that was the tenor of statements made Tuesday at the fourth annual IT Summit in Stuttgart.
In fact, according to a government-funded survey by TNS Infratest announced at the summit, Germany tied with Norway for seventh place in a ranking of 15 nations in their competitiveness in the information and communications technology sector. The United States ranked first.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who attended the summit, concluded: "We're not defeated worldwide, but we're also not number one," she said.
One of the prequisites for enabling Germany to move out of its mediocre position is a secure and complete network of broadband Internet access, experts said.
"We can be successful through achievements in the IT sector," Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle said, noting that the expansion of broadband access would also create more jobs.
Bruederle said investments of 40 billion euros ($59 billion) by companies and the government into the comprehensive broadband project were necessary, adding that investments could yield up to one million jobs in all affected branches in Europe by 2020.
"We want to create more jobs with information and communication technology than are being lost in the rest of the economy," he said.
The Federation of German Industries estimated that the creation of comprehensive broadband internet access could result in 400,000 jobs in the country by the end of 2014.
Internet security
Combating networks of malicious and clandestine programs must be another priority, experts at the summit said. The so-called "botnets" harness the power of many infected computers and use them to spread junk mail and illegal programs.
Germany is the third most infected country worldwide.
A public-private partnership announced at the summit will establish a self-help web site designed to help clean botnet-infected computers, and a call center will provide technical advice. The web site is scheduled to be launched by April, and the call center by June.
Similar programs have proved effective in Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Cooperation needed to combat botnets
Internet security remains vital to the growth of the IT sector, and the threat from botnets can only be combated through cooperation between government, industry and the public, experts said.
An estimated quarter of all German computers are infected with botnet software, with some 60,000 new infections occuring each month.
The proposed call center will be a last-resort option for users who have failed to solve the problem after working with their Internet providers and the self-help web site to remove a botnet infection.
Professor Michael Retort, chairman of the Association of the German Internet Industry, said the new public-private partnership would give internet providers and users an opportunity to protect themselves. He compared using the Internet with an infected computer to driving a car with faulty breaks.
"When a provider says a customer's computer is infected and offers help, then the customer should accept that help. Otherwise he becomes a danger to others," he told Deutsche Welle.
"Indirectly this presents a substantial danger to internet providers. A goal of the program is for citizens to understand they are responsible for their computers."
Updated IT could reduce greenhouse gases
With the United Nations Climate Change Conference underway in Copenhagen, Stuttgart's IT Summit also included an environmental component.
"People sometimes do not realize how much energy is consumed in this area," said Chancellor Merkel, referring to the IT sector.
Advanced communication technology and intelligent software could help Germany reduce up to 25 percent of its CO2 emissions by 2020, according to a study released in Stuttgart by companies including Deutsche Telekom, SAP and Siemens.
The study was based on data assuming Germany's CO2 output continues its current trajectory with no new mitigation efforts. While the information and communication technology branch contributed only 2 percent of German CO2 emissions in 2007, it steers sectors such as logistics, electricity production and industry.
Skeptics, however, said that communication technologies have helped contribute to the emissions problem.
Germany wants to reduce its CO2 output 40 percent by 2020 in comparison to 1990's levels.
Author: Gerhard Schneibel
Editor: Louisa Schaefer