39-40/2013 Security takes charge
Security remains a key Leitmotiv of our age. The list of dangers that we may face at some point on our journey from the cradle to the grave is already infinitely long – but nevertheless still growing. What started with extra training wheels on your bicycle and water wings for swimming has in the meantime become a full metal jacket of protection – insurance against not being able to start a journey, getting the flu, a skiing accident or a bomb attack. Just as you can bet on any and every event these days, anything and everything can also be insured – right down to Julia Roberts’ legs. So far, so good. But now a new risk has appeared on the horizon. Security has hooked up with another Leitmotiv of this era – IT. What used to be merely a passionate affair has now become a deep and meaningful relationship. Computer users experience this at every twist and turn of the digital world map – but most of all when it comes to spam filters. You can choose a package, proxy or content filter, to name just a few. There is some satisfaction from not receiving any unwanted e-mails in your in-box anymore, after all. But it can get a bit annoying when not a single unknown e-mail address is allowed to write to you anymore. New customers with an innocent inquiry, newly-appointed employees who have not been authorised by IT yet, old friends with new e-mail addresses – all consigned to the IT-filter dustbin. The system then defeats itself. I hope I’m secure with my assumption that you’ll have an entertaining read of the following pages of the ITJ.
Christian Doepgen
Editor-in-chief