25 years of eurobits e.V. – a special occasion that we duly celebrated in Bochum on 4 July
In our follow-up report, we look back at the best moments of the day and the most important milestones in our club’s history.
More than 80 representatives of our members and partners from politics, business and science came together at the Strätlingshof in Bochum on 4 July to celebrate a quarter of a century of the association’s history with us.
At the beginning of the anniversary celebration, our Chairwoman of the Board Christine Skropke gave an exciting review of the past 25 years. The subsequent laudatory speech by the Lord Mayor of Bochum, Thomas Eiskirch, who has followed the development of eurobit from the very beginning and emphasised the importance of our association for the expansion of Bochum as a cyber security hotspot, also contained some nice anecdotes and reviews.
Launch of eurobits and expansion through RegioCall EFRE.NRW
Started in 1999 as a small, regional interest group, eurobits has developed into a recognised association in which leading research institutes, established and young growth companies jointly promote security in information technology in various projects and initiatives. A decisive factor in this development was the award of the grant from the Arnsberg district government for the ‘Regio.NRW – Innovation and Transfer’ call for proposals totalling one million euros. As part of the three-year funding from the European Union, the association was able to set up its own office at the Centre for IT Security in Bochum and professionalise the association considerably. Part of this professionalisation included the implementation of the multi-day event series ‘eurobits Security Summit’, which was initially launched digitally in 2020 due to the pandemic and was held in person in subsequent years.
Zuschlag für das Kompetenzzentrums DIGITAL.SICHER.NRW
Ein weiteres Highlight unserer Vereinsgeschichte war der Zuschlag für das gemeinnützige Projekt DIGITAL.SICHER.NRW, den wir 2020 als Konsortium gemeinsam mit dem Cyber Security Cluster Bonn (CSCB) vom Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Industrie, Klimaschutz und Energie (MWIKE) des Landes NRW erhielten. Ziel des Kompetenzzentrum für Cybersicherheit in der Wirtschaft in NRW ist es, kleine und mittlere Unternehmen in NRW bei allen Fragen zur Cybersicherheit zu unterstützen.
Im Auftrag des NRW-Wirtschaftsministeriums entwickelte DIGITAL.SICHER.NRW gemeinsam mit Kammern, Branchenverbänden, Vertretern aus der Industrie sowie Cybersicherheitsinitiativen aus der Region ein Konzept, um die digitale Sicherheit im Mittelstand Nordrhein-Westfalens zu stärken. Die im Rahmen der Initiative entstandenen Maßnahmen richten ihren Fokus vor allem auf die praktische Relevanz des Themas digitale Sicherheit im Kontext von Unternehmen. Ein gemeinschaftliches Erfolgsprojekt: Auf dem Sommerfest des Kompetenzzentrums im vergangenen Jahr gab NRW-Wirtschaftsministerin Mona Neubaur vorzeitig die Vertragsverlängerung bis 2026 bekannt.
Development of eurobits women academy (ewa)
A second grant from the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs for our association started in 2022 with the ‘eurobits women academy’ (ewa). However, it was only thanks to the generous donation from the RWTÜV Foundation, which covered the required own contribution, that the academy could be realised. The aim of our three-year research project was to identify new ways to inspire more women to pursue a career in cyber security and thus counteract the shortage of skilled labour in NRW’s commercial enterprises in the long term. To this end, we have designed an in-service training programme as part of the project that provides female career changers with the most important knowledge relating to cyber security in a practical way.
Outlook for future association projects
As part of her anniversary speech, however, our CEO Christine Skropke not only gave an overview of the most important milestones in the association’s history, but also an outlook on new topics that we would like to tackle together in the future. These include the tightening of the Network and Information Security Directive (NIS) through the NIS2 Directive, which significantly extends the scope and obligations for minimum standards in the area of cyber security for companies. These affected companies are to be accompanied by the association through targeted support services to increase their cyber security measures. In addition to the targeted promotion of women, we would also like to further address the shortage of skilled labour in the industry by establishing vocational training with a focus on IT security.
Keynote speech by Prof Dr Peter Schwabe (MPI-SP) and conclusion of the event
The subsequent keynote speech by Prof Dr Peter Schwabe was somewhat more technical, but just as entertaining as the reviews by our CEO and Lord Mayor. He is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy and has established a research group dedicated to the security and performance of cryptographic software. In his presentation, he gave a very exciting insight into the past and future of cryptography and the international successes that his team has delivered as part of the standardisation processes at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
During the networking that followed, we had many good and intensive discussions – whether it was getting to know the new members, exchanging ideas with the founding members or having in-depth technical discussions.
Our sincere thanks go to our 53 member companies from business and science as well as our partners, supporters and sponsors. Without their commitment and solidarity, the successful growth and realisation of our projects and initiatives would not have been possible.
We look forward to many more joint activities and innovative projects!
