The fifth generation of mobile communication (5G) will certainly trigger a remarkable change in our lives. What first comes to mind is faster mobile communication, but this is only a minor aspect of 5G. Companies will be able to establish much more perfect and uninterrupted connection between machines, while also making production facilities and internal logistics a lot more efficient, autonomous and flexible.

Before discussing what 5G is or how it will affect our daily lives, I would like to indicate the concept of wideband or high-speed networks. The humankind has always attached priority and importance on building roads, constructing bridges even at the first stages of our common civilization in order to bring geographies and cultures closer. This was how we could ensure communication, improve trade, converge and connect people, incidents and ideas. I believe it is important to use the same perspective to evaluate the popular high-speed and network connectivity issues related to 5G.

It would be appropriate imagining 5G as a global wireless network designed to connect all public / private domains and manufacturing sites – from government offices to residences, plazas and municipalities, from automated shelf systems to robots, etc. Today, many of the machinery and tools in production facilities are still connected via cables. However, with the new 5G communication standard to become operational in 2020, this will definitely change soon. At first, the data rate will be 1 to 5 gigabits per second and eventually increase up to 20 gigabits per second. This is a huge leap to increase the data rate by 10 to 20 times compared to the previous LTE.

While offering us opportunities for faster communication, greater business development and trade, 5G also brings along a security risk, in a very similar way as the roads and bridges do. That is exactly the point where cybersecurity emerges. We need to put new approaches forward to be able to keep the economic traffic secure. Cybersecurity is no longer a matter of hardware and software. Given the recent recent publicly reported global cyberattacks, it is vital to adopt a human-focused approach and to reflect this approach in our corporate culture if we want to prevent any potential risks.

I am one of those who believe that the internet is a great structure for free flow of information. However, we shouldn’t ignore the value of data as we focus on the value of the content. Yes, we sometimes do exactly that. According to BARC independent research company, as the revenues of corporations using Big Data increase by 8 to 10 percent, total costs fall 10 percent as well. Even if we put aside the extra employment to be created by data-focused jobs, time savings alone will result in focusing more on core functions of the business world and producing more creative results. Thus, 5G offers very valuable

No matter our focus is, our true goal is always to seek the new and to search for innovations. 5G will contribute greatly to the quest and support the emergence of the “new”. Therefore, we need to be ready for this development and to take action in terms of finding out how to benefit from the opportunities of 5G and how to adapt to the new world.

No matter how concrete are your precautions, the existence of them in any sphere of life does not guarantee you feeling safe. In fact, the world of cybersecurity is full of such mistaken thoughts. For example, the state of believing that hackers or hacks do not target you simply because you have not yet been hacked is called “security delusion”.

Today, the variety of cyberattacks that an institution might face increases in proportion to the developing technologies. Taking a closer look at such new threats, we see that tiny sensors that can connect to the internet thanks to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) remind us of a new responsibility to pay attention to. Here, it is not only our personal data that is under threat. Our whole way of life can be adversely affected, interrupted, or even life can come to a halt in extreme cases of cyberattacks.

The following figures may give us an opinion on how serious the issue is: Cyberthreats caused more than 500 million Euro loss globally in 2016 alone. When the number of connected devices reached 8 billion in 2017, communication among these devices increased 30 percent in one year only. Considering that the number of such devices is expected to exceed 20 billion next year, we can easily understand why the World Economic Forum’s 2018 report classifies cyberthreats as the biggest problem of the business world in developed regions.

We have all witnessed in the past few years how large-scale cyberattacks like Petya and Wannacry affect the economy, as well as powerplants, digital factories, autonomous cars, or even healthcare institutions, all of which are vital for our daily lives. To avoid becoming a victim to such disasters, we need to establish a safety philosophy, then adopt and absorb this philosophy at every level – from individuals to societies.

It is in the nature of humans to break rules and laws. We can implement regulations and use sophisticated technology to shield us from selfish criminal attacks, however only to a degree. As laws can be broken, so can be security measures and encryptions by those who want to harm the society. For this it is essential to create awareness, collaborate and make the impact of security an essential aspect of education in our society. 

Charter of Trust, a cybersecurity initiative, lays the foundations of our responsibility. This initiative that we announced during the Munich Security Conference a year ago has made great progress with the approval of the 10-article charter by 16-member institutions who agreed to collaborate in the future.

Simultaneously with the announcement of the charter, we established a cybersecurity ecosystem of 1,300 people. On the other hand, we have special practices to increase the security level of our products and develop new solutions for our customers. Since Siemens suppliers are also within this scope, there are binding provisions for them in all new contracts. These provisions define the minimum requirements for cybersecurity. Last October, we took another important step by accepting 17 minimum provisions for digital supply chains as well. While doing these, we adopt an approach to simplifying processes for our company, our customers and our suppliers, rather than making things more complicated.

I would like to once again emphasize that the most important component in cybersecurity is humans. To me, the most valuable contributions of the Charter of Trust are the trainings. We devise trainings to increase employee awareness on issues varying from basic information such as strong passwords to multi-level security measures like access authorizations and encryption. However, cybersecurity should be more than an internal practice for companies. Therefore, we aim to make it a part of high school and university curricula. Thus, we will equip young people with the tools they need in order to design security in the digital world.