Transferstelle IT-Sicherheit im Mittelstand TISiM
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New IT security transfer office bundles support nationwide

News from May 14, 2020

The “Transferstelle IT-Sicherheit im Mittelstand” announced by Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier at the beginning of the year is taking shape. At a congress on 28 May, the operating consortium consisting of DIHK, Fraunhofer FOKUS and Fraunhofer IAO, Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and initiative Deutschland sicher im Netz (DsiN) will provide the first insights into the future work of the initiative.

“Medium-sized companies in particular are increasingly becoming victims of cyber attacks. For the first time, the transfer office is creating a contact point for IT security specifically for small and medium-sized businesses and the trades,” explains Altmaier. The Transfer Office, funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, bundles existing initiatives and offers for IT security and data protection and supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the skilled trades and self-employed persons in their implementation. “The Transfer Office provides orientation in order to find suitable offers and implement them in each company,” explains Sandra Balz, head of the new office of the “TISiM - Transferstelle IT-Sicherheit im Mittelstand” (Transfer Office for IT Security in SMEs) in Berlin. When fully operational, the initiative will operate more than 80 regional contact points at chambers of commerce and industry and the skilled trades on a national level, and will also be on the road nationwide via mobile teams.

Until the opening of the first contact points in autumn of this year, the initiative is calling for cooperations with partners from SMEs and the IT security industry in order to integrate a wide range of offers and security requirements in future work. The first offers will be presented at the initiatives congress on 28 May 2020 in Berlin. Further information and news about the project can be found at TISiM.de in German language. The abbreviation of the domain stands for “Transferstelle IT-Sicherheit im Mittelstand”, the official name of the initiative.

“The transfer of research into practice is always central to Fraunhofer, whether in the development of new technologies or in the area of further education,” says Nadja Menz, group leader in the Digital Public Services business unit of Fraunhofer FOKUS, one of the five research partners in the consortium. “For Fraunhofer FOKUS, as an institute for digital networking, the topic of cyber security is of course central to this.”

With various formats such as the Fraunhofer Academy and the Cyber Security Learning Lab, Fraunhofer has been providing scientifically sound expertise for specialists and managers, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises, for years. “With the Transfer Office IT Security for SMEs, we are now expanding our portfolio to include a huge database of products, learning content, tutorials, literature and publications - a wide variety of offerings to help SMEs in Germany be better prepared in the medium term for the diverse threats from cyberspace,” explains Richard Huber, project manager in the Collaborative Safety and Security business unit at Fraunhofer FOKUS.

About the Transferstelle IT-Sicherheit im Mittelstand (TISiM)

TISiM provides companies, trade and craft enterprises and self-employed persons with tailor-made measures to increase IT security and accompanies them in the implementation. In addition to the central and virtual transfer point, TISiM will operate over 80 regional contact points (shop windows). A mobile team supports the nationwide orientation of the offers. The operators of TISiM are DIHK e.V., Fraunhofer FOKUS and Fraunhofer IAO, Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and the Verein “Deutschland sicher im Netz” (DsiN), which is also the project leader. TISiM is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy as part of the DsiN funding line.