Munich, March 22, 2017 – Cisco announces the opening of a Security and Trust Office (S&TO) in Germany. S&TO – Germany represents Cisco’s enduring investment in cyber security. It serves as the central point of contact for public and private sector customers with strategic cyber security, data protection, data control and privacy requirements and concerns. S&TO – Germany is part of Cisco’s Country Digitization Acceleration program in Germany.

Cyber security is critical to accelerating Germany’s drive to digitize its economy. Recognizing this, Cisco’s global Security and Trust Organization (S&TO) and Cisco Germany are announcing the formation of S&TO – Germany. The role of Cisco’s global Security and Trust Organization is to ensure trustworthy product development, customer data protection, data control and privacy, value chain security, and transparency.

S&TO – Germany will facilitate communication with government agencies at the federal, state and municipality level, as well as with the private sector. It will provide industry-leading transparency into the integrity and security of Cisco® products and services, Cisco security processes and controls, and its data protection and privacy practices. Cisco is also dedicating resources in Germany to ensure best practice sharing and to facilitate open and candid conversations with customers and partners regarding the importance of security and trust in the digital economy. S&TO – Germany will work with public and private sector customers to help analyze their infrastructure, understand cyber risk, identify and mitigate vulnerabilities, and ensure that their networks are built on a foundation of secure, resilient, and trustworthy products.

An important pillar of the work of S&TO – Germany is providing customers with access to the Technology Verification Service (TVS). Customers, both private and public sector, can use TVS to inspect and test the security and integrity of Cisco technologies and products, including hardware, software down to the source code, firmware, and technical documentation. Twice a year, S&TO – Germany will publish Cisco’s transparency report, which includes information on the number of requests for customer data access by law enforcement and national security authorities.

Additionally, S&TO – Germany will partner with Cisco Networking Academy® to help develop targeted training and education. Cisco’s Global Cybersecurity Scholarship program, the Networking Academy Cybersecurity Essentials coursework, and the new Cisco Learning Network Cyber Ops curriculum are all key components of Cisco’s investment in education and training.

“With S&TO – Germany we aim for even better and faster support addressing the high security requirements in Germany”, says Klaus Lenssen, Chief Security Officer Cisco Germany and Head of S&TO – Germany. “We will strive for a continuous dialogue in order to meet the emerging challenges of digitization together with our customers. The Cisco Security & Trust Office – Germany offers this dialogue to all parties involved. The goal is to find global solutions for the challenges of cyber security that also work in Germany.”

Organization of the STO

The Security & Trust Office – Germany is part of the global Security and Trust Organization headed by Cisco’s Senior Vice President and Chief Security and Trust Officer John N. Stewart. It has more than 650 employees worldwide.

Cybersecurity is a top priority for Cisco. Every day, Cisco is faced with the challenge of protecting 122,000 internal and external employees, plus its own network with more than 40,000 routers, 26,000 office connections, 2,500 IT applications, 1,350 test labs and 500 cloud applications in 170 countries and thus its own data as well as that of its customers.

Country Digitization Acceleration

Within the framework of Cisco’s Country Digitization Acceleration program in Germany (“Deutschland Digital”), Cisco is investing 500 million US dollars in order to advance digitization in Germany. The program focuses on innovation, security and education. Investments include initial funding for specific digitization projects, research funding, the expansion of the Cisco Networking Academy program, direct investment in a venture fund, and additional staff and infrastructure spending.

Further information on the Security and Trust Office – Germany can be found on the official website at: http://www.cisco.de/trustoffice (German).