Displaying items by tag: Germany

US President Donald Trump has admitted that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the prospect of forming a cybersecurity unit at the G20 summit which was held last week in Hamburg, Germany. The scrutiny over cybersecurity has intensified following the recent ransomware attack which destabilized hundreds of businesses and institutions like the NHS in the UK.

The attack only served to indicate further that it doesn’t matter what size your organization is, every entity it seems is extremely vulnerable to these cyber-attacks from those in the murky world of hacking. The US presidential race was dogged by allegations that Russia were involved in influencing the election. Hilary Clinton had her e-mail hacked during the campaign and was subsequently investigated by the FBI – and many political analysts believe this interference ultimately cost Clinton the election.

Both the CIA and FBI on the instruction from the Obama administration were asked to investigate the allegations further – in an attempt to establish whether Russia was responsible for the cyber-attack. The CIA later confirmed that it believed Russia was the source of the hack, but incredibly, this was rubbished by the President-elect Trump.

At the G20 Summit in Hamburg, both presidents were meeting for the first time, and Trump tweeted about the future of forming a cybersecurity unit between the two nations to combat fears over election hacking. He said it was time for the US to work constructively with officials in Moscow.

Trump tweeted, “Putin and I discussed forming an impenetrable cybersecurity unit so that election hacking and many other negative things, will be guarded and safe.” In addition to this, Trump disclosed that he had in fact challenged Putin on the allegations that Russia was responsible for the hacking scandal which embroiled the US presidential election, but said Putin rejected the claims.

Trump tweeted, “I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I've already given my opinion. We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a visit to Mexico City, said the digital world needs concrete regulations similar to those that exist for financial markets in the G20 and for trade under the World Trade Organization.

The Chancellor’s call for tighter digital regulation echo British Prime Minister Theresa May’s call for tighter international regulations on cyberspace, following the terrorist attack that took place on June 3 in London. Introducing new rules for cyberspace, she said, would "deprive the extremists of their space online." May also insisted that technology companies are not doing enough to thwart terror groups online.

Ms. Merkel has stressed the importance of common standards to add more security during uncertain times. The world is facing unchartered territory with the inter-networking of smart devices and the automation of factories – a trend Germany has dubbed Industry 4.0, which includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things and cloud computing.

Germany plans to use its leadership of the Group of 20 major economies to develop a concrete plan on digital policy at a summit in July, Reuters reports. The country has also expressed its desire to establish a common plan to promote fast internet for all and agree on common technical standards at the G20 meeting in Hamburg in July.

In her speech Merkel referred to an agreement by G20 countries to tackle cyber attacks on the global banking system. She also said Europe needs to work closely with the United States to ensure sensible rules are put in place because so far standards have been erratic.

Swedish telecoms company Telia Carrier announced that it has added a new, high capacity route that stretches from Zurich, Switzerland to Strasbourg, France via Basel, Switzerland, providing a shortened path and lower latency between Frankfurt, Germany and Zurich.

With the addition of a new PoP and metro fiber in Zurich, the new route provides current and potential customers with routing options that dramatically improve performance for traffic to and from Milan, Italy and Marseilles, France. The combination of a shorter, unique route with added security and diversity gives Telia Carrier’s customers the ability to stay one step ahead of their end-users’ rising expectations.

In Zurich, the global wholesale carrier is seeing heightened demand for high capacity fiber infrastructure and 100G+ services from over-the-top (OTT) content providers and large-scale web hosting companies to meet customer demand. With the addition of a new PoP and additional fiber in Zurich, Telia Carrier can offer a variety of services and routing options to local and international companies looking to connect throughout Europe.

The new route provides inherent reliability and hardened security on a unique right-of-way with the fiber buried deep underground. Telia Carrier is offering its full portfolio of services on this route.

“As demand for OTT and cloud-based services continues to rise, service providers will need agile connectivity options for delivering their services. The new network path between Frankfurt and Zurich provides the highest capacity route across a shorter distance available in the region and gives content providers the infrastructure needed to drastically improve latency with a secure connection,” said Christoph Lannert, Regional Sales Director for Telia Carrier. “By delivering a diverse array of options in Zurich and the surrounding region, Telia Carrier empowers its customers to put their customers’ needs at the center of their universe.”

Telia Carrier’s global fiber backbone has grown organically, without acquisitions, and was the first to be 100G-enabled in both Europe and North America. It is also the first network to successfully transmit 1 Tb/s in super channels on its US network. According to Dyn Research’s global backbone rankings, AS1299, Telia Carrier’s global IP backbone, is currently ranked top-two.

Accenture, the global professional services company, and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) have formed an alliance to enable clients to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies as fundamental elements of their innovation strategies, helping to shape the future of their organizations. 

Accenture Analytics, part of Accenture Digital, will apply its deep analytics expertise with DFKI’s specialized AI research capabilities to further the adoption of these new technologies in Germany and beyond.

Together, Accenture and DFKI will provide clients with direct access to innovative AI technologies, supporting them to understand the potential of applying AI for their organizations and guiding the implementation of new solutions through the adoption of best practices to unlock tangible new value and growth opportunities.

“Technology developments in this field are progressing at rapid speed, and we need to help clients continually reinvent themselves in such a fast-paced environment by applying new technology to unlock new outcomes,” said Frank Riemensperger, country managing director for Germany at Accenture.

“The volumes of unstructured data from the rise of the Internet of Things and other major technology trends offer huge new opportunities for those looking to transform their operations or even develop entirely new business models using AI-based technologies. AI empowers people to do things differently and to do different things. By combining DFKI’s expert researchers and AI practitioners with the deep insights and assets from Accenture Analytics, we can help clients achieve real benefits from imagining and then building their AI-enabled futures, today.” 

“This innovation partnership with Accenture gives DFKI the opportunity to develop disruptive AI solutions for businesses as well as implement digital business models together with one of the leading management and technology consulting firms,” said Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster, CEO of DFKI.

“In particular, we are seeing a high degree of maturity for applications in the areas of Smart Data & Services, Deep Learning, Human-Robot-Collaboration and AI-based Retail, which we expect to result in profitable solutions for our clients in a very short timeframe.”

Through this collaboration, Accenture will get access to DFKI research results, AI tools, Living Labs and the deep expertise of DFKI’s top researchers. Simultaneously, DFKI will work closely with Accenture teams to gain new insights on real-world applications of AI within a broad range of industries, developing best practices and fostering the exchange of talent from both organizations for the overall acceleration of AI adoption for the benefit of clients.

AI is a major growth and productivity factor for the economy, and is projected to boost labor productivity by up to 40 percent through fundamentally changing how we work and reinforcing the role of people to drive growth in business. AI has the potential to more than double Germany’s annual growth rate of gross value added from 1.4 percent to 3 percent by 2035.

Across all industries, companies are working to take advantage of AI-based technologies, developing innovative business models and services, and redefining their value chains. Through this collaboration, DFKI and Accenture will help innovative companies and public institutions benefit from the current AI wave to transform into intelligent organizations.

Through an open innovation approach that is part of the Accenture Innovation Architecture, Accenture works with organizations including research companies such as DFKI to discover disruptive innovations for clients, before helping apply them to achieve real business outcomes.

Deutsche Telekom is joining the Industrial Data Space Association (IDSA). Industrial Data Space has set itself the goal of advancing the general conditions for a digitally connected economy and to establish secure, effortless exchange of data. The initiative was founded by several German federal ministries and representatives from the worlds of research and industry.

Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, cloud computing: The automation and interlinking of all areas of life and work is creating new business models and changing corporate culture across all sectors. Exchanging data is the foundation for this interaction among services, such as predictive maintenance of machines or real-time shipment tracking. However, the rise of data as industry’s new raw material makes clear governance rules on secure data use and a cross-sectoral, cross-company technical standard essential.

The Industrial Data Space Association was founded in 2016 with this in mind. It has set up a virtual data space to support the secure exchange of data and simple linking of data in business ecosystems on the basis of standards and by using joint governance models. Members retain ownership of their information, only making it available to trustworthy certified partners, and can define data privacy requirements.

“Companies must be in a position to decide the conditions under which they make their data available to partners,” underscores Lars Nagel, Managing Director of the Industrial Data Space Association.

Security plays an important role here. Deutsche Telekom recently created “Telekom Security,” a new security unit bundling the entire Group’s security expertise. Approximately 1,200 experts work to protect infrastructure and customers’ systems. Moreover, Deutsche Telekom is constantly developing new security solutions in collaboration with renowned partner companies and also expanding its own security systems to detect and repel new sorts of hacker attacks.

The Group guarantees the maximum possible level of security in the cloud, in particular through a growing range of German cloud solutions, operating at highly secure twin data centers in compliance with the country’s strict data security rules. All of this makes Deutsche Telekom a perfect fit for the initiative.

“Digitization is a matter of trust. Our security experts work around the world to ensure that our customers’ data and IT infrastructure receive the best possible protection so they can embrace new digital business models with confidence,” says Anette Bronder, Director of Digital Division and Telekom Security at T-Systems. “We are pleased to support this initiative and to bring our know-how to the table to protect sensitive information and infrastructure.”

With Deutsche Telekom's membership the Industrial Data Space Association has scored another important success. “The Industrial Data Space’s work is possible thanks to its members. The more companies feed in their expertise and requirements for a secure and effortless exchange of data, the more successfully it can be implemented,” says Lars Nagel.

Telefónica, using Huawei's Smartcare SOC solution, announced the deployment of three dedicated Service Operations Centers (SOC) in Argentina, Chile and Germany for the intelligent management of its network as a first step of a ground-breaking project which will enable the company to capture, in real time, the true quality of customer service experience, at this stage, in mobile services only.

The objective is to guarantee excellent connectivity and performance, so that the customer can always enjoy the services they want, when and how they want.

Moving from network to service and customer centric operations is a complex and ambitious undertaking for Telefónica, but the benefits are clear, including the ability to understand, manage and assure customer experience. This will lead to improved operational efficiencies and customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Service Operations Centers implemented use the anonymous and aggregated information on network used by customers that enable the company to anticipate possible incidents and black spots, among other things. In this way, proactive actions can be identified which when applied will guarantee better use of services, predictive maintenance, network optimization and quicker, more tailored and effective responses to customers who have a technical issue.

With this new way of Data Driven Operations, the company is now able to take decisions based on homogeneous criteria and calculations, in real time, and with accurate and comparable data, changing network maintenance from "scheduled" to "proactive" and "predictive".

As part of its customer-centric operations strategy, Telefónica has selected Huawei Smartcare SOC's solution to deploy its Service Operation Centers starting in Argentina, Chile and Germany.

Huawei Smartcare SOC is the bridge between network resource assets management and customer assets management, and provides a Customer and Service centric operations capability that enables superior customer experience and operational efficiency.

Huawei SOC's solution provides Per Service Per User (PSPU) visibility of Customer Experience which identify and fix faults before they become a problem for the customer and reduce complaints and churn.

Huawei will support Telefónica not only with the deployment of its Smartcare best-in-class customer experience management platform, but also with the launch of the operational transformational program including the processes definition and first year of operation.

Enrique Blanco, Global Chief Technology Officer of Telefonica S.A. said: "These SOCs are the first step in bringing customer experience to the next level. In the near future the application of Artificial Intelligence to networks will maximize capacity and solve any problems before end users even notice anything. The final objective is to manage the network automatically to avert any potential problems.

"Machine learning is also becoming critical as operators virtualize their infrastructure: networks are becoming dynamic and exponentially more complicated to manage as the control is delegated to the network's edge. As Telefonica moves towards the next generation of networks, intelligence and analytics are key, to turn data into a knowledge that enables real-life innovation."

Edward Deng, President of Telefónica Global Account, Huawei said: "It is a great honor for Huawei to be selected as the Customer Experience Management SOC's solution supplier for Telefónica. The SOC is the key to realize the Service and Customer-Centric Operation Transformation."

"Huawei Smartcare SOC Solution has been one of the company's key strategic investment areas, and strengthens our position as a transformation partner for Telefónica. We are confident and committed to deliver the end to end solution requested by Telefónica to the highest quality. Huawei is fully committed to this project and will draw upon all our considerable expertise and experience to support Telefónica and ensure the complete success of the objectives set."

The application of analytics tools on the network together with its maintenance shows Telefónica is taking another step towards becoming a customer-centered company, since it entails delivering excellence in services and ensuring quality through evolving from network management to customer experience management and with quality as first priority.

Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, presented to Chancellor Angela Merkel, as part of her traditional CeBIT tour, a technology that can help beekeepers protect their bees.

The narrowband wireless technology NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) transmits the data collected by intelligent sensors, straight from the beehive to the beekeeper. This data includes temperature, air humidity, air pressure, beehive weight (how full the combs are) and activity of the bees. The beekeeper simply needs to look at their smartphone or tablet app to find out whether their bees are healthy. 

The example shows that digitization can even make an important contribution to preserving a species. A beehive is the world's smallest industrial plant with 40,000 workers on half a square meter. As with Industry 4.0, sensors and Narrowband-IoT continually monitor and provide timely assistance before a bee colony is damaged. NB-IoT already offers a wide range of possibilities and the technology is being further developed rapidly.

This technology is important because “bees are dying” says research. According to figures from the German Beekeepers' Association, the number of bee colonies has fallen in Germany alone from 2.5 million in 1952 to less than one million today. Winter also keeps taking its surprisingly heavy toll on the bee colonies, alarming the public in the process. A ten percent depletion is seen as the norm.

Surveys conducted among beekeeping businesses revealed average losses of around 30%. The exact causes of bee mortality are unknown; possible causes include the use of pesticides, monotonous landscapes, lack of food sources, the loss of the natural habitat of the animals, and parasites such as the varroa mite. 

The CeBIT partner country Japan is also familiar with bee mortality and is getting to grips with this phenomenon in an unconventional way. As part of the Ginza Honey Bee Project, 300,000 bees and eight beehives got a new home on a Tokyo office tower in the Ginza shopping district.

Cities offer bees greater protection, with fewer natural predators in the urban environment than in the countryside. In the very first year, the high-rise bees produced 440 kilograms of honey, which is now sold as Ginza honey in the local department stores or is even used as a cocktail ingredient in a local bar. Even local confectioners have got a taste for the urban honey, with commercial imitators setting up in over 70 locations in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Japanese researchers are already thinking about a world without insect pollination and developed a mini-drone as a bee substitute at the start of the year. Despite this and similar inventions worldwide, bees are indispensable.

The almond industry in California alone needs 1.8 million hives with around 35 billion animals so that three billion almond tree blossoms can sprout every year. With a current price of 100 dollars per drone, the technical alternative is an expensive undertaking.

German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom, which has a stake in Britain's BT, saw its profits fall for 2016, because of BT's loss in value after the Brexit vote. Deutsche Telekom's profits were down 18 percent to 2.67 billion euros ($2.8 billion), according to the company's results. This pales in comparison to analyst predictions of 4.54 billion euros.

Deutsche Telekom's 12 percent stake in BT was the main reason behind the company's 2.2 billion euro loss which was a "result of declines in the BT share price and in the pound sterling following the Brexit referendum," said Deutsche Telekom. Britain's June vote to leave the European Union affected the global markets sparking uncertainty.

Deutsche Telekom has insisted that the fall in profits won't affect its payout of shareholder dividends, which it plans to increase by 5 euro cents to 0.60 euros per share. Operating, or underlying profit at the group slightly outpaced its own forecasts, adding almost 8.0 percent to reach 21.4 billion euros.

Thanks to its American unit T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom saw its revenues increase 5.6 percent in 2016 to over 73 billion euros - more than analysts predicted. The unit alone added 8.2 million customers last year in the teeth of a highly competitive and saturated US mobile phone market. T-Mobile USA's revenues grew 16 percent to $37.3 billion, while profits doubled to $1.5 billion.

However, in Europe, the company's revenues in Germany and the rest of the region fell as its fixed-line phone business continues to decline. Looking ahead to 2017, Deutsche Telekom aims to increase revenues to achieve an operating profit of around 22.2 billion euros -- 4.0 percent higher than 2016's figure.

China Unicom and Deutsche Telekom announced a strategic partnership at Mobile World Congress 2017. From now on, both firms will jointly enhance their M2M competencies and promote the expansion of existing and new technologies such as NarrowBand IoT and the expansion of IoT platforms, with the goal to lay a firm foundation for continued growth and joint business opportunities in Europe and China.

The cooperation allows customers from Deutsche Telekom to equip and manage devices with M2M connectivity also in China and manage this connectivity via the same portal that they use for Europe and other regions. China Unicom customers will experience the same benefits on the China Unicom portal when they are offering M2M products and solutions in Europe.

This move is important because the demand for global M2M connectivity is increasing. According to the GSMA, China will account for 39 percent of all global cellular M2M connections by 2020, representing by far the largest M2M market. German technology and service companies are already investing heavily in tapping the potential of the emerging Chinese M2M and IoT markets.

On the other side, Chinese Internet and technology companies have entered the field of IoT through wearable intelligent terminals, smart home, mobile health care, and many other businesses, and are eager to offer their services also in Europe. The interconnection of the Deutsche Telekom and China Unicom platforms will offer simple access for German and Chinese M2M customers to the other respective network.

"With this agreement, we take a next step toward greater developments in the area of M2M connectivity for our customers. Our partnership with China Unicom accelerates business opportunities and paves the way for new services and applications for our globally operating customers," said Claudia Nemat, Member of the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management, Technology and Innovation. "Not only will this partnership underline both our technological advances but we will also be able to learn from one another. We are looking forward to exchanging ideas and sharing experiences."

"We believe this is a good time for China Unicom and Deutsche Telekom to cooperate both technologically and commercially to jointly explore the Business opportunity in both China and Europe," said Mr. Yimin Lu, President of China Unicom. "China Unicom looks forward to future development of M2M connectivity that we will be able to offer our customers operating globally through this partnership with Deutsche Telekom. By creating synergies, we intend to shape the pathway towards future M2M connectivity as the leading global provider."

As Germany’s election season draws near, social media giant Facebook announced that it will introduce new measures to combat the spread of fake news on its platform for Germany, drawing attention to the importance of having clear and honest representation of candidates of Europe’s largest economy and most populous nation.

“It’s important to us that reports and news posted on Facebook are reliable,” read a blog post on Facebook’s German website. German politicians are reportedly concerned about the spread of fake news by populist parties and foreign nations in attempts to try and influence Germany’s parliamentary elections which will take place later in 2017.

The new initiative introduced by Facebook will target “unambiguously wrong reports” that are shared on the social media platform. Facebook has said it wants a simpler reporting process for users to report fake news and display warnings next to statements identified as false by independent fact-checking organizations. Facebook also wants to cut advertising revenue to fake news websites that represent themselves as legitimate organizations.

Stories shared on Facebook that have been flagged as fake news will not be eligible to be converted into an ad seen by other users or “promoted” into other users’ feeds for a fee, AFP reported. Facebook said: “We think that independent and transparent fact-checking can be a powerful instrument for journalism.”

German nonprofit investigative journalism organization, Correctiv will be the first fact-checking partner for Facebook in Germany. Facebook says it is “confident” that it will add more news organizations in the future. The move comes shortly after Facebook announced the creation of a “Journalism Project” to boost the credibility of the information it circulates.