IT security – a weak point in German municipalities

The Rhein-Pfalz district literally had to pull the plug at the end of 2022, followed by the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in July 2023. Hacker attacks on cities, districts and municipalities have become a regular occurrence. 70 municipalities supplied by Südwestfalen IT were hit in October. Just last week, it was the turn of 12 municipalities in the district of Neu-Ulm. And just these days the district of Vorpommern-Rügen followed. This shows: Appropriate measures at all levels of administration to protect official IT systems are a must. This is why SerNet GmbH supports the open letter from TeleTrusT, the German IT security association. It calls for the NIS2 guidelines to also apply to local government institutions.

The open letter is a response to the IT Planning Council, which decided in November 2023 to exclude public administration at local authority level from the scope of the NIS2 Directive. Among other things, this directive places increased demands on IT security measures. Experience has shown that a lack of security results in high costs due to system failure, restoration or the purchase of new devices and also results in problems with citizen services.

SerNet GmbH therefore sees the call from TeleTrusT as urgently necessary. We are convinced that better precautions, prescribed security measures and faster and more transparent responses in the event of an emergency must apply to all levels of public administration. Although the implementation of European regulations can be challenging in detail, a patchwork in the
security architecture should be avoided. Uniform and consistent security standards are essential for the integrity of and trust in our public institutions.

We thank TeleTrusT and all the co-signatories of the open letter for their commitment and initiative. It is an important step to emphasize the importance of IT security in municipal structures and to promote a necessary change.

TeleTrusT claims to be the largest competence association for IT security in Germany and Europe. SerNet has been a member since 2015.