Quo vadis it-sa?

it-sa is considered one of Europe´s largest IT security fairs, has grown tremendously and attracts more and more foreign guests as well.

We try to pick up the trends while walking and talking on the show floor. We searched for the overall trends. This short summery is a combination of a Hardware Security Module Vendor (Utimaco) and a PKI Solution provider (Primekey).

Trends we observed and things we learned

• GDPR it has finally arrived! Question has changed from “Are you ready?” to “Who gets fined the highest?”… and we all click through the cookie pop-ups jungle.

• Blockchain was almost absent (for better or for worse), maybe because the hype is over and it still has long-term security question marks.

• Currently, we see two important trends within our area of security – blockchains and post-quantum cryptography. At PrimeKey and Utimaco we are addressing both, but we think that none are ready for prime-time yet, due to lack of standardization and need for further rigorous research before making general availability. 

• eIDAS is coming through the infrastructure: Only a few Trust Service Providers have been present at it-sa, but it seems like that all Trust Service Providers are busy implementing their solutions and take the applications to market soon. With the launch of the first Common Criteria EAL 4+ certified HSM, Utimaco has delivered one major building block to complete the eIDAS toolbox. Together with PrimeKeys EJBCA and SignServer Portfolio we joined forces to deliver one of the holistic solutions in the market.

• Cryptographic key management is gaining in importance – everywhere – and everybody wants to be Crypto-Agile!

• Cloud is omnipresent – while customers are struggling with implementing their multi-cloud strategies or cleaning up their multi-cloud mess. PKI and HSM have reached the Cloud universe. With a hybrid deployment also in the area of PKI, customer could easily solve the challenges of large rollout especial in the are of IoT. “Keep your keys separate” in a dedicated HSM seems to be an attractive architectural choice for many large corporations with a cloud strategy.

• There were presentations about German IT security sovereignty, but the trend is consolidation / solution orientation in the market, customers decide. Microsoft´s German Cloud was such an excursion with short life-span.

• The Industry is back to the good old bread and butter business: Unified Threat Management and Authentication especially seen at the large international distributors.

• Utimaco remains the “Made in Germany” security vendor, who offers the first Common Criteria EAL 4+ certified HSM enabling customers to make Digitization truly happen with eIDAS-compliant signature applications.

Please feel free to share your own comments and observations!