Information and cyber security develop nearly every second year with a new mindset: Initially, in the eighties, Cryptographers were the real security experts, awareness specialists took over, network security, system security, and many more mindsets were predominant. Today we know that all aspects together make the security orchestra.

One essential aspect always remained: security should serve the business and protect the business along with its needs. The business did not care for too long and thought the engineers should make all save. It happened because of the complexity of security and the large language gap between engineers and managers. Business focused means that the business knows which security aspects are relevant and impact the business and which properties are important for the engineers but not relevant for the business.

In the new area, very rich private customers want to speak to banks’ IT security personnel and know whether their money is well protected. The customers are accompanied by cybersecurity experts who perform the due diligence security checks.

It is just an example of competitive advantages resulting from high-end protection.

Through cybercrime, we face enormous damages that set our prosperity and welfare at risk: Germany reports losses (including secondary issues at a standstill) of 266 billion euros in 2024. The overall global loss would be ranked 3 in the nation’s GDP ranking, just after the USA and China. Against this background, cyber security is essential, and top business-focused cyber security is a competitive advantage.

Christian Folini, we will experience business conditions that align with security and business incentives that weaken the overall security. Sascha Maier, CISO SV Group Zurich, will present how an incident can turn around the situation, what it means to align security to business, and how this can be implemented successfully.