FORUM: IT security in intralogistics

Material flow is accompanied by an increase in data transfer. Are functional efficiency, communications paths and important company information also adequately protected?

Thursday, 10 February from 2.00 pm to 3.30 pm, Forum I – Hall 1
Presentation/Organisation: Klaus Koch, Editor-in-Chief ‘Logistik & Fördertechnik’, SwissProfessionalMedia AG, Switzerland

NOTE: Simultaneous translation into English is provided


Shuttle systems and automated vehicles controlled by remote computers swerve around the aisles. Goods extraction and materials handling technology are increasingly ‘online’, and resources and identities are often monitored externally via the Internet. Software is increasingly penetrating the world of merchandising and the flow of trade and goods. But it leaves the supply chain vulnerable to attack. Are IT-supported networks as reliable as conventional systems – and how secure is company-related data in the ‘cloud’.

One of the key technologies of future IT-controlled systems is radio frequency identification technology (RFID). Wolf-Rüdiger Hansen, Managing Director of the trade association AIM, which champions systems for automatic identification (auto-ID) and mobile data communication in 900 member companies, is currently once again seeing a kind of stagnation. “We are in a fundamental dispute with the privacy groups,” he says. These groups maintain that every unique ID allocation, every item number could be misused. For this reason the European Commission published a directive in 2009 saying that care should be taken to ensure that data privacy is adequately observed. Since that time the Privacy Impact Assessment has been started and is under way.

From a logistics standpoint, the benefits of networking are obvious. The speed and compatibility of the data exchange in the different systems determines the quality of the logistics. “Has your company made the connection to Logistics 2.0 yet,” asks Horst Neumann of systems integrator Euro-Log, which advises numerous clients in close cooperation with SAP. According to Horst, even the relatively simple task of dealing with pallets, loading devices and containers can be optimised by using IT sensibly, and improvements can be made at the ramp by intelligent management.

However troublemakers could also look for loopholes to gain access to data and valuable freight. For this reason the very best of modern data security consists of storing the data securely in former nuclear bunkers in the Swiss Alps. Important databases can be transmitted to and stored in underground computer centres using software called ‘Mount10’. Flo Schweri, Managing Director of the software solution that also gave the company, a subsidiary of SIAG Secure Infostore AG, its name, will be reporting on the work carried out in two former army strongholds in the Alps. The self-contained constructions are protected against all eventualities, be it storms, earthquakes or electromagnetic radiation.


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