The first half of 2019 is now behind us. It was characterized by aggravations and uncertainties in the political and social sphere. Apart from the general political situation, I would just like to point out a few priorities and their impact on the security sector. The discussion about the mobility of the future focuses on the use of electric motors in the cars of the future. These drives should be CO2 neutral. Concerned voices point to the problematic results of an overall ecological balance and the increasing dependence on certain raw materials. In addition, fires from electric car batteries are practically impossible to extinguish. There are impressive pictures of burning TESLAs on the Internet. In its issue of 12 June 2019, a well-known safety magazine draws attention to the dangers, especially in garages, and formulates initial recommendations for suitable measures. Given the current hype, these warning voices will probably fade away. Other people wonder whether it is really unproblematic that we are flooding our environment more and more with electromagnetic waves. With regard to the electric cars and the huge batteries, it should be noted that they can generate considerable radiation exposure for passengers. The pressure to solve difficult challenges leads to considerable new risks. This difficulty also arises elsewhere. In recent weeks, the power grid was on the verge of collapse. There have been several critical situations in the German electricity grid. European partner countries had to step in to secure the electricity supply in Germany. The required energy could not be generated. This has led to a drop in the grid frequency in the entire European interconnected grid. “But there was no threat of a blackout” was communicated reassuringly. At this point, the inclined reader wonders whether the proven guiding principle of crisis communication has been violated here, which is: “Everything you say must be true, but you do not have to say everything that is true”. The fundamental consequences of a large-scale blackout in Central Europe should have been known at the latest since the very realistically written novel of the same name by Marc Elsberg. In the discussion about alternatives in power generation, we will have to learn to deal with these new challenges. Foreign cyber attacks have been blamed by those in power in Venezuela for the long-lasting power cuts. A similar experience was made a few years ago in small Estonia, which was under cyber-drum fire for weeks after activities critical of Russia. Finally, we should mention the brave new world of digitalisation. We stand there astonished and look at what is supposed to be possible with the Internet of Things (IoT). The supposed comforts are increasingly confronted with previously unknown risks: A hacker attack, for example, where 100,000 air conditioning systems are started simultaneously, would quickly exceed the load limits of the power grid. We can stop this trend in our “high-risk society” only to a very limited extent. But we can adapt to the challenges and learn to deal with them. This certainly includes the various consulting areas of risk, emergency and crisis management as well as information security and data protection. We see it as our responsibility here to make a contribution to overcoming the “risks of modern development”. We would be happy to talk to you about how your company can respond to these challenges, how you can ensure the continuity of service delivery and what contribution we can make. Get an overview of our training program on our new website. With our training center we offer excellent training opportunities in a personal environment. We look forward to talking to you Klaus Bockslaff and Mathias Götsch PS: For questions we are at your disposal! Please call us at +41 44 910 9909 (CH) or +49 6324 926 89 94 (D) or send us an e-mail to Klaus.Bockslaff@verismo.ch. If you no longer wish to receive further information from us, please let us know by e-mail at contact@verismo.ch
