3rd CIO Convention Digital World & Governance: Data Sovereignty
"Gaia-X", "Data Sovereignty" and "IT and Cybersecurity" occupied a large and important place among the topics of this year's and third CIO Convention - Digital World & Governance. Organized by the German Association of IT Users (VOICE), the meeting was held on March 10-11 at Berlin's Hotel de Rome and provided the platform for representatives from governance, regulation and the user world to discuss digitization in the areas relevant to them.
Open topics and questions
How can data sovereignty be achieved via a European path? What is the purpose of Gaia-X and what is the approach behind it? From what point in the planning of one's own IT does one have to start in order to protect oneself effectively against cyber attacks? These are all questions taken from the convention that today's IT entrepreneur has to face in a time full of digitalization and change.
Sven Löffler - Squad Lead of the Data Intelligence Hub business Squad - in a dialogue about the importance of data sovereignty for the DIH and its users.
Data sovereignty today: a case study
Data has evolved over time from a by-product to an economic asset. It has become valuable: "Data is the new gold." Accordingly, it has become all the more important to clearly define who may and who may not dispose of it. When confronted with the term data sovereignty, one automatically thinks of the term security. Both terms are very close to each other, but data sovereignty also includes a (usually very difficult) economic question for the entrepreneurs.
An example: A manufacturer of electric motors equips them with sensors to detect production errors at an early stage. Now the motors are installed by a wind turbine manufacturer. The finished wind turbines are installed by an operator and are now in his possession. Can the motor manufacturer or wind turbine manufacturer now continue to demand the data of the electric motors? Theoretically, the rights to the data were also sold when the wind turbines were sold to the operator. However, an operator certainly does not profit from motors that can no longer be optimized and monitored by their manufacturer... . Moreover, what if in the event of a release, data gets to the competition?
To solve the situation, a secure and neutral data broker is essential, through which the operator can assign access rights to the data.
This is exactly where the Data Intelligence Hub is a pioneer
Few platforms can claim to maintain the sovereignty of their users' data. Anyone who exchanges, offers, buys or wants to generate added value from their data through analysis on the DIH can rely on one thing: The data will remain secure! The reference architecture to IDSA and Gaia-X makes it possible. By implementing IDS as a cloud-based service offering, the data pools are protected from unwanted access, which nevertheless does not restrict the intended data exchange in any way. Both the security of stored data (data in rest) and used data (data in use) is secured via both concepts (IDSA and Gaia-X). The architectural outline of the platform already takes this requirement into account, which makes it difficult for other providers to upgrade to such certification at a later date.
In the above example, the operator can therefore release part of the data (e-motor sensor technology) to which it is legally entitled (depending on the contract with the participants) to the motor manufacturer with a clear conscience, so that the latter can continue to optimize its production. The operator could also introduce a clause that the released data may never be passed on to a competitor. The operator has full sovereignty over its data and can thus exclude unwanted access.
