Data protection in the USA - Part 1 of the delegation trip

Delegation trip with the Cyber Security Council of Germany

In Europe and its neighbouring countries, the GDPR now arrived after one and a half years. The German discussion about data protection is increasingly focusing on the exchange of data with third countries, primarily with the USA. There, the tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook have recently come in for criticism. In order to get a first-hand impression of data protection in the USA, Prof. Dr. Andre Döring went on a two-week delegation trip, organized by the Cyber Security Council of Germany. In the three-part series, Prof. Dr. Döring reports on his impressions in three stops.

Data protection situation in Germany

The Hessian state data protection commissioner advises against using the Office365 package from Microsoft due to data protection concerns. The data protection conference agrees that Windows 10 cannot be used in compliance with GDPR. Amazon collects thousands of data points from its customers and Facebook is criticized not least because of the data leak to Cambridge Analytica.

“Aus meiner Sicht ist es sinnvoll, Entwicklungen in Sachen Datenschutz jenseits des Atlantiks aus deutscher oder besser europäischer Sicht kritisch zu begleiten. Es ist aber auch immer gut, sich persönlich ein Bild von der Lage zu machen. Aus diesem Grund habe ich mich der diesjährigen US-Delegation des Cyber-Sicherheitsrates Deutschland e. V. vom 08.11 bis 14.11.2019 angeschlossen.” so Prof. Dr. Döring. Die exzellenten Kontakte des Cyber-Sicherheitsrates ermöglichten es der Delegation, tiefe Einblicke in den Datenschutz und die Sicherheitsstruktur amerikanischer Unternehmen wie Microsoft und Amazon und Sicherheitsbehörden wie des Department of Homeland Security zu erlangen, die sonst verschlossen blieben würden.

The East Coast: a Mecca for cyber security

The first stop of the delegation's trip was in Washington D.C., the capital of the USA, which is home to all important US authorities on the topic of "security". The Pentagon, FBI headquarters and important parts of the Department of Homeland Security are located in Washington. Around D.C.: as in Howard County in Maryland, the NSA and the US-Cyber-Command have their main locations. The training of cyber experts in the military and civilian environment is provided in D.C. by the National Defense University.

It is therefore no wonder that this hotspot for cyber security was an important goal of the delegation. Howard County in particular has been home to many private cyber companies that have created thousands of jobs in this sector.

National Defense University, D.C.

The first meeting led to the National Defense University. The National Defense University (NDU) trains primarily members of the American cyber forces for deployment in long and short programs. There we met Tom Wingfield, Acting Chancellor of the NDU and on the career jump as Deputy Director in the cyber environment of the Pentagon, who reported on the structure of military cyber training and the programs of the university.