The network
guardian
When data needs to be secure, it’s his finest hour.
Dr. Lutz Jänicke is responsible for the security of products
and solutions at Phoenix Contact. An interview about
castles, slouch hats, mafia, and motivation.
D
r. Lutz Jänicke is actually an electrical engineer by na- pared for as many eventualities as possible. And then the de-
ture. But while doing his doctorate and postgraduate fense needs to be as many steps ahead of the attacker as pos-
work, he stumbled upon the topic. In the meantime, sible. In the Middle Ages you had years to do this, today it has
he has become an internationally renowned expert on data se-
to be done more quickly.
curity, and the very first person to go to at Phoenix Contact Errors often occur in classical patterns. When program-
when it comes to the systemic protection of networks. Appro- ming, you also rely on your colleagues having done their job
priately, the interview was held in the old castle and palace well. If mistakes creep into a labor division, these are the open
complex of Bad Pyrmont. gates for an attack. The four eyes principle helps in this re-
spect. As with classical castle construction, the defense con-
è Dr. Jänicke, are we safe and secure here? cept needs to be in place from the very beginning. This is what
(chuckles) Well, maybe 1,000 years ago. But how were castles we mean by security by design.
attacked in the past? They fired, stormed, laid siege, and even- This is labor-intensive, annoying for creative minds, and
tually dug tunnels to bring down the walls. In other words, also expensive. In the end, you end up with a product that
they looked for weak points. This is no different today than it doesn’t even look different from an unsafe product, just more
was 1,000 years ago. expensive. You have to make an argument from that stand-
Security was and is not a technical issue, but a process is-
sue. The important thing is that there is no gap.
point first. The legislature is helping with the critical infra-
structure. Or look at your our own bitter experience of produc-
tion downtimes. This can quickly cost several million euros,
è Once you set up security once, you’re secure for good? and can even lead to massive loss of customers due to inability
No, it’s an ongoing process. You have to consider beforehand to deliver or corporate collapse. This is referred to as “saving
how to organize your defense in such a way that you are pre- at the wrong end.”
The Phoenix Contact innovation magazine
à
UPDATE 4/20
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