ZITIS

ZITiS is the Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector. As a central service provider for federal authorities with security responsibilities, ZITiS develops and researches innovative technical solutions, tools and methods that contribute to maintaining internal security in Germany.

The challenges facing federal authorities with security responsibilities, particularly with regard to information technology capabilities, have become increasingly dynamic in recent years. The German Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs (BMI) established ZITiS to be able to answer the challenges of our increasingly complex world. 

ZITiS serves Germany's security authorities with research and development in the areas of digital forensics, telecommunications surveillance, crypto and Big Data analysis, as well as on issues of crime prevention, danger prevention and counterintelligence, but has no intervention powers itself. In addition, there are overarching services such as central knowledge databases and quality assurance of deployed products. 

The most important tasks of ZITiS are briefly explained below.

Digital Forensics: Digital traces predominate at crime scenes nowadays. A wide variety of devices can play a role in the investigation. For this purpose, these digital traces must be forensically secured and processed in order to be utilized in legal proceedings. ZITiS researches and develops special hardware, software and procedures for this purpose.

Telecommunications surveillance (TKÜ): Telecommunications surveillance (TKÜ) is an important investigative tool for serious crimes and danger prevention. ZITiS provides tools, advises security authorities on their implementation and develops new methods and strategies for them, but does not have its own powers for TKÜ.

Cryptanalysis: Encryption serves to protect data and privacy, but also offers criminals the opportunity to communicate and act covertly and evade prosecution. ZITiS advises and supports security authorities on methods to fulfill their legal duties even against the background of secure encryption. 

Big Data Analysis: ZITiS is engaged in intensive research in the field of Big Data and the development of methods to support security authorities in dealing with the large amount of data. The application areas are as diverse as the data to be analyzed. Therefore, in addition to experts in data analysis, this area is also home to high-performance computing (HPC)

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