Cybersecurity in Focus: Looking Back at the Internet Security Days 2025

The Internet Security Days (ISD) 2025 once again brought the cybersecurity community together at Cologne's RheinEnergieSTADION on 15 and 16 September, becoming the central meeting point for experts from business, science, politics and administration, who discussed current threats, new technologies and the framework conditions for IT security.

A key focus of this year's ISD was email security. As part of the "Email Security Year" declared by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), which eco significantly shaped, a dedicated thematic block addressed the challenges and solutions in this area. In addition to a practical workshop on email security in companies, which particularly emphasised the consistent implementation of standards such as SPF, DKIM, DMARC, DNSSEC and DANE, presentations and panel discussions also revolved around email as a medium. Caroline Krohn (BSI) opened the main conference day with a presentation on the campaign "Your Emails, Your Digital Home". It became clear that secure email communication is not just a technical issue, but must also be culturally embedded.

Beyond the email focus, two other key themes shaped ISD 2025: the security of digital infrastructure and cyber resilience. The first theme centred on the question of how to secure digital infrastructures as the foundation of transformation. Daniel Sieveke, State Secretary and Commissioner for Information Technology (CIO) of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, spoke in this context about, among other things, a holistic approach to state modernisation. Experts also discussed how data centres, cloud services and networks can be made even more resilient to disruptions and attacks.

The cyber resilience theme was dedicated to strategies against ransomware, phishing and other threats and highlighted how strong cyber resilience can be built up in a sustainable manner. Individual presentations addressed topics such as quantum technology and its contribution to (in)security, cybersecurity in connected vehicles, and the prevention of deepfake attacks.

Beyond the lecture programme, the ISD also offered special highlights. The Security Night powered by F5 became a popular venue for networking and in-depth conversations in a relaxed atmosphere. Another highlight was the exclusive stadium tour, which gave participants exciting insights behind the scenes of the venue and created an extraordinary conference experience.

Overall, ISD 2025 clearly demonstrated how diverse and complex the issues of IT security topics have now become. From technical solutions to organisational processes to political frameworks, one thing became clear: cybersecurity requires foresight, collaboration and innovation. eco would like to thank all participants as well as its strong partners - F5, AirIT Systems, G Data CyberDefense, Huawei, Myra, NKCS, plusserver and Cosanta - for the exciting exchange.

All photos from the event can be found here.