Munich 31-Oct-2019

Federal State of Saarland encrypts administrative network

Starting in November, Saarland will encrypt its administrative network according to BSI standards using a system from IT security expert Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity. Today, the encryption system will be presented to the public in Saarbrücken.

Munich, October 31, 2019 - Ammar Alkassar, the Saarland's authorized representative for innovation and strategy and CIO, has presented the encryption system to the public at the IT Service Center (IT-DLZ) together with representatives of the manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity and the service provider T-Systems

The system, which consists of a central management system and distributed high-speed encryption devices, will go live in November 2019 after a successful test phase.

In the future, each location of a state authority connected to the Saarland state data network will be equipped with an encryption device. At present, there are 110 locations; due to the expansion of the Saarland network, there will be 150 locations when the project is completed. The multipoint-to-multipoint technology allows data to be encrypted completely and in real time when entering the data network. Exchanged documents, data streams or emails cannot be read by external parties (end-to-end encryption). This complies with the strict standards of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and protects the data of citizens.

"We are delighted with the start of the real-time operation of the project, which combines high security with powerful encryption and underscores the Saarland's pioneering role in digitization," said Dr. Falk Herrmann, CEO of Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity.

The project was launched in 2017 by the Saarland State Administration and the police under the auspices of the IT-DLZ. Thanks to the intensive cooperation between the project partners Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity, T-Systems and the IT-DLZ, the project was successfully completed in October 2019.

"With the end-to-end encryption of the state data network according to BSI standards, Saarland is not only consistently implementing the digitalization strategy with 'Cybersecurity first' and 'KI first', but is also demonstrating in an exemplary manner for Germany that seamless encryption of all the state's authorities can be implemented across the country," said Ammar Alkassar, the federal government's authorized representative.

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