The Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (abbreviated BSI - in English: Federal Office for Information Security, but more often known as German Information Security Agency (GISA)) is the German government agency in charge of managing computer and communication security for the German government. Its areas of expertise and responsibility include the security of computer applications, critical infrastructure protection, Internet security, cryptography, counter eavesdropping, certification of security products and the accreditation of security test laboratories. It is located in Bonn and has over 400 employees. Its current president, since 16 October 2009, is mathematician Michael Hange, who took over the presidency from Dr. Udo Helmbrecht.
BSI's predecessor was the cryptographic department of Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND). BSI still designs cryptographic algorithms such as the Libelle cipher.
Read more about Federal Office For Information Security: Similar Agencies, History
Famous quotes containing the words federal, office, information and/or security:
“Newsmen believe that news is a tacitly acknowledged fourth branch of the federal system. This is why most news about government sounds as if it were federally mandated—serious, bulky and blandly worthwhile, like a high-fiber diet set in type.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“We have two kinds of “conference.” One is that to which the office boy refers when he tells the applicant for a job that Mr. Blevitch is “in conference.” This means that Mr. Blevitch is in good health and reading the paper, but otherwise unoccupied. The other type of “conference” is bona fide in so far as it implies that three or four men are talking together in one room, and don’t want to be disturbed.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“As information technology restructures the work situation, it abstracts thought from action.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)
“In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.”
—J. William Fulbright (b. 1905)