Diversity as future skill, competence barometer of digitalization professions and a strike against LockBit

Skilled workers in digitalization professions: The demand is significantly higher than the supply

How to write computer programs, how to operate automated factories and how to develop creative digital business ideas? In order to successfully shape the digital transformation, companies need skilled workers with digital skills. They therefore need an overview of the digital skills available on the labor market and which ones are required. The skills barometer recently published by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection shows the current situation of skilled workers in digitalization professions in Germany and the need for action in the coming years. The study examines how the skills gap and employment could potentially develop by 2027 if the trends from 2016 to 2022 continue.

Since 2018, digitalization occupations have recorded higher employment growth than the average for all occupations. Digitalization occupations encompass skills profiles that are necessary to develop, produce and effectively use new key digital technologies. This includes not only IT expertise, but also skills in electronics and other areas. The rapid growth in employment in digitalization occupations is expected to continue: By 2027, the number of people employed in these fields in Germany could rise by a further 13.7 percent to over 3 million. One of the main reasons for this growth is the demand for IT occupations, which account for around a third of those employed in digitalization occupations. High qualifications are also becoming increasingly important, particularly in software development and IT consulting.

The shortage of skilled workers is hindering the expansion of employment. In 2022, the skills gap in digitalization occupations was higher than ever before at 123,000. When calculating the skills gap, it is assumed that vacancies are first filled with all suitably qualified unemployed people available in the respective region - any additional demand is added to the skills gap. This number could increase further by 2027 - up to 128,000. This will mean that there will be no suitably qualified unemployed people for almost two out of every three vacancies in Germany. The greatest shortage will probably be of highly qualified experts, especially in the field of IT, which includes data scientists and AI experts.

Overall, the demand for workers in digitalization professions is currently significantly higher than the supply available on the labor market. The shortage of skilled workers primarily affects digital electrical professions; however, the situation in the individual digital professions varies and the causes of the skills shortage are diverse. The authors of the study therefore conclude that more measures are needed to strengthen the potential of skilled workers. Otherwise, employment growth in one sector or company could come at the expense of another and skills could shift to the detriment of other professions, they warn. Domestic and foreign potential must therefore be activated more strongly. On the one hand, this could be achieved through better career orientation for school graduates, but also by adapting vocational training to the faster pace of change. The study also calls for retraining and partial qualifications in order to train career changers from other sectors for digitalization professions.

Click here for the skills barometer

Companies with a diverse team are more successful

Diversity wins - and companies with a diverse workforce win in several respects. Companies that actively promote and utilize the diversity of their workforce are not only acting in a socially responsible manner but can also achieve significant economic benefits as a result. This has even been shown in studies. Diversity is therefore an important future skill that is not only crucial for the long-term success of companies, but also for their innovative strength and competitiveness. What can diversity achieve in a company? Find out more in this text in our Future Skills series.

Diversity - what does it actually mean? The term is often equated with variety. However, its meaning goes beyond this, as it describes the variety and diversity of people in a group, organization or society in an appreciative and respectful way. This diversity can manifest itself in many dimensions, for example gender or age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, cultural background or religion, but also in terms of personal skills or experience.

In the corporate context, diversity means creating an inclusive working environment in which all employees feel equally respected, supported and heard, as well as recognising and promoting diversity among employees. This is also known as "diversity management": the strategic planning, deployment and management of measures aimed at increasing and managing diversity in companies. Such measures can include, for example, the development of guidelines and programs, or the sensitization and training of employees, as well as strategies for diversity-oriented recruitment and development. With the help of diversity management, organizations can create a working environment that benefits from different perspectives, experiences and skills while reducing discrimination and prejudice.

Diversity as a means to combat the skills shortage

 But diversity management can do even more: namely help to combat the shortage of skilled labor. The World Economic Forum picks up on this perspective in an article and argues that the lack of talent is not only an obstacle to the digital transformation of many companies, but that they are also losing competitive advantages as a result. A new mindset is therefore needed to find, retain and develop talent for the workforce of the future: Leaders would need to quickly tap into new sources of talent, especially in groups that are currently underrepresented. In the technology sector, for example, this group includes women and minorities. A good practice example here explains how one company managed to reach people with autism by creating a different recruitment program that dispenses with the traditional job interview. 

Diversity as an important factor for business success

Making your own company more diverse can not only help combat the shortage of skilled labor, but is also economically lucrative: companies that have a high level of gender diversity are significantly more likely to be profitable on average - 25% more than other companies. When it comes to ethnic diversity on the board, this figure is as high as 36%. In contrast, companies that are rather poorly positioned in terms of diversity are 25% less likely to be more successful than average. These are the findings of the McKinsey study "Diversity Wins - How Inclusion Matters".

Scientist and entrepreneur Eva-Maria Siegel also analyses these higher chances of success in her book "Benefits through diversity". She describes the management of diversity as an innovative HR strategy that can be used to make full use of the potential of employees that has not yet been sufficiently utilized. Siegel sees dealing with diversity as a key skill for HR managers and executives: if companies evaluate and improve their approach to diversity, they can increase employee satisfaction, reduce conflict situations, improve customer focus and better develop target group-specific products. She cites the smart factory as an example: a wide range of customized products and delivery times can only be achieved if the workforce is also increasingly diverse in order to tap into new markets and successfully deal with international customers. This is because stereotypical perceptions of cultural differences can lead to market failures, e.g. because one group is assigned or denied certain usage patterns.

Companies that have an open attitude towards the unexpected, can adapt to international customer needs and can make ethically correct decisions therefore have better chances - and such competences are strengthened above all by diverse teams. At this point, the author quotes from a Berger study on "Diversity & Inclusion" that the German economy could save around 21 billion euros per year if companies systematically promoted measures to promote diversity in the workforce.

Bringing employees with different backgrounds into the company is therefore worthwhile in many respects. However, in order to retain them, you also have to give them the feeling that they belong and that they can contribute to the work. It's about allowing "being different" and seeing it as a strength, says Christian Reincke, Head of People Development at EDAG, in an episode of our Digikompetenz podcast: "This means that I don't let it scare me, but that I make myself curious. Curiosity, together with openness and emotional intelligence, may therefore be a future skill if we transfer this 'being different' or 'doing things differently' to talent development."

Hacking group LockBit reports back

It sounded too good to be true: at the end of February, an international team of investigating authorities arrested two suspected members of the LockBit hacker group. As part of "Operation Cronos", 34 servers were also taken offline and over 200 crypto wallets were confiscated. An investigator had discovered and exploited a vulnerability on LockBit's official website. This led to a successful strike against the hacker gang.

LockBit had previously attacked over 2000 organizations in the West. The targets included organizations in critical infrastructure, food supply, agriculture, industry and even healthcare. LockBit's speciality was encrypting victims' data and demanding a ransom for its release. It was considered one of the most dangerous hacker gangs in the world.

The press proudly announced that LockBit had been smashed. However, it is highly unlikely that the arrest of two suspected members of the group will lead to its dismantling.  As early as 2023, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) wrote on its website:

"The LockBit ransomware operation operates as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, where partners are recruited to carry out ransomware attacks using LockBit ransomware tools and infrastructure. Due to the large number of unconnected partners in the operation, LockBit ransomware attacks vary significantly in the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) observed." 

LockBit therefore works like the snake Hydra in Greek mythology: if one head is cut off, more grow back. The head in the center appears to be immortal. There is much to suggest that this center is in Russia. According to the British authorities, LockBit appeared in Russian-language forums in 2019. The Neue Züricher Zeitung reports that the people behind it are mostly based in Russia and are well protected from international prosecution.

Just one week after "Operation Cronos", an alleged member of LockBit reported back.  The hacker wrote that he was continuing his work because he loves it too much. And offers the investigator who hacked the LockBit website a job at LockBit: "Although in fact only one person from all over the planet deserves praise, the one who pentest (ed) my site and picked up the right public CVE, I wonder how much he was paid, how much was his bonus? If less than a million dollars, then come work for me, you'll probably make more with me."

How successful the strike against LockBit actually was will become clear in the coming months.

ChatGPT's memory function: language models soon to be personal AI assistants?

This announcement caused quite a stir: ChatGPT recently began testing a "memory" function with a small group of users. This feature allows ChatGPT to remember information about users or learn from conversations over time. The chatbot can thus remember the tone of voice, voice and format preferences when answering certain tasks. According to OpenAI, this could be, for example, that a user once mentioned having a small child with a preference for jellyfish. If they then ask ChatGPT to design a birthday card for this child, the chatbot can remember this and creates a card featuring a jellyfish with a party hat. 

What sounds like a nice extra in this example may, however, represent a significant development for large language models such as ChatGPT, analyzes the FAZ in an article. This is because the fact that today's large language models forget things limits their potential uses more than any other aspect, it says. If you try to use AI language models for even simple projects over several steps, the models quickly reach their limits, precisely because they forget what happened before. Until now, users have tried to solve this problem by dividing their projects into small subtasks and working through them one after the other. Model providers have also found solutions to get around this problem. For example, the search engine Perplexity offers project folders with individual folder prompts. Previous instructions can be stored in these folders, which the service takes into account for each new request. However, this means additional effort for users and is not sufficient to provide the model with a comprehensive personal background.

The memory function of ChatGPT can therefore be an important cornerstone for a new generation of AI services: For a real, personal AI assistant that can understand what the user wants because it gets to know them through their requests and interactions. The new AI assistance systems made possible by this function will be better in many areas than today's language models, predicts the FAZ. But for this knowledge, the models also need as much personal data as possible to help the AI model get to know us. In a heise.de article, the author comments that this is "at least as bad in terms of data protection" as personalized advertising, "if not worse".

Users can also ask ChatGPT to "forget" things and completely deactivate the memory function. OpenAI announced that the feature will initially be rolled out to a small portion of ChatGPT's free and Plus users to test its usefulness. The company will soon announce plans for a wider rollout.

Europe most affected by cyber-attacks worldwide in 2023

Europe is the region most frequently attacked by cyber criminals worldwide: More than a third of all recorded attacks in 2023 targeted Europe. Within the industrial sector, the manufacturing industry was hit most frequently. These are the findings of the 2024 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, which was published by IBM at the end of February. What are the biggest vulnerabilities of European companies?

32% of cyberattacks registered worldwide last year targeted Europe - compared to 2022, this figure has risen by a third and is higher than ever before. One of the reasons for this high position in the ranking is that Europe recorded the most ransomware attacks worldwide. Over a quarter of cyberattacks were classified as ransomware.  However, the most frequent cause of incidents was malware (44%). For European companies, the attacks mainly resulted in credential theft, extortion and data leaks. The manufacturing industry was affected by more than one in four cyberattacks (28%). Germany is one of the most frequently attacked countries in Europe, only the United Kingdom is ahead of it, while Denmark is just behind Germany. In Germany, attacks were concentrated primarily on healthcare facilities, the manufacturing industry and financial institutions.

The attacks on critical infrastructures highlight the security weaknesses in European industry: In almost 85% of cases, the attacks on critical sectors could have been prevented by applying patches, multi-factor authentication or the principle of minimal access - i.e. restricting user accounts, the report states. This clearly shows that security measures that are considered to be basic are often more difficult to implement than assumed.

Another key finding from the report is that hackers are not yet making any profits from attacks on generative AI. However, the analysis suggests that large-scale attacks on these platforms will occur as soon as a single generative AI technology reaches a market share of 50% or when the market concentrates on three or fewer technologies. Gaps in the security fundamentals do not receive as much attention as AI-driven attacks. Nevertheless, the biggest security problems for companies cannot be ascribed to newer and unknown vulnerabilities, but actually to the known and fundamental security gaps, according to the report. Identity is repeatedly misused for attacks on companies - and this problem will be exacerbated if attackers increasingly use AI to optimize this strategy.

In order to ward off cyber-attacks, awareness of relevant threats must be created throughout the company. It is important to deepen knowledge in the areas of cyber, OT and IT security. To this end, we have developed the Cybersecurity 4.0 training course - the online training course for practical use with 26 learning videos and over 3 hours of learning time. 

You can find out more here!

3rd Regensburg Cybersecurity Congress and AIR Annual Meetup

How can we prepare for cyber attacks by artificial intelligence? The answer to this question can be found at the 3rd Regensburg Cybersecurity Congress and AIR Annual Meetup.

The 3rd Regensburg Cybersecurity Congress will take place on 22 April 2024 from 10 am to 5 pm.

We from i40 – the future skills company will also be there with our WOW booth for awareness in cyber security and hope to see many of you at the Jahnstadion Regensburg.

The event will be moderated by Christian Omonsky from Conceptnet and, in addition to the key note speaker Prof Dr Dennis-Kenji Kipker, we can expect many other interesting presentations.

Focus of the event:

The ever-expanding and increasing use of artificial intelligence is redefining the field of tension between cyber criminals and defenders in IT security. On the one hand, it is becoming much easier to carry out attacks without a great deal of specialist knowledge, while on the other hand, AI-based processes also facilitate anomaly detection and defence.

The agenda and other useful information

The event is free of charge.

👉Click here to register

The following exhibitors will be represented:

AIR Artificial Intelligence Regensburg , AirITSystems GmbH , CISIS12, Datenbeschützerin GmbH , DriveByte GmbH , i40 – the future skills company , IT-Sicherheitscluster e. V. , LaS³, Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg , mITSM GmbH , NESEC GmbH , Ratisbona Compliance .

New episodes Digikompetenz Podcast in April 2024

We are looking forward to the new episodes in April with:

Episode 143 with Dr. Irène Y. Kilubi , founder and CEO of JOINT GENERATIONS and author of the newly published book "Du bist mehr als eine Zahl: Warum das Alter keine Rolle spielt",

Episode 144 with Dr. Annika Hauptvogel , Head of Technology and Innovation Management at Siemens ,

Episode 145 with Andre Zayarni , CEO and co-founder of Qdrant ,

Episode 146 with Prof Dr Stephan A Jansen , Professor of Urban Innovation at the University of the Arts and Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society Berlin, as well as Managing Director of the "Gesellschaft für Urbane Mobilität BICICLI" and mobility concept consultancy MOND.org.

▶️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/64Wt6MZ5FVphqq3YCYLPkK

More than 140 episodes of our DIGIKOMPETENZ PODCAST are already online: with exciting and inspiring guests such as Richard David Precht, Ranga Yogeshwar, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, Daniela Kluckert, Spiegel reporter Thomas Schulz, Managing Director of Süddeutsche Zeitung Digitale Medien, Johannes Hauner, CEO of the cult business magazine brand eins, Holger Volland, those who completed the Beethoven symphony with AI, Dr. Matthias Röder, Walter Werzowa, Seda Röder, CEO of DB Cargo, Dr. Sigrid Nikutta, Head of Dealer Development, Audi, Heiko Schmidt, Head of Future of Work Project Harvard Business School, Professor Joseph Fuller, LEGO Talent Leadership & Organization Development Johannes Lystbæk and David Tøttrup, blockchain specialist at RMIT Vietnam, Dr. Binh Nguyen Thanh, US neuroscientist and AI expert, Dr. Vivienne Ming, Vice President and Managing Director, Adobe Central Europe, Christoph Kull, Head of Watson, Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, IBM, Dr. Wolfgang Hildesheim, Divisional Board Member for Corporate Clients at Commerzbank Guido Groß, Mina Saidze, Thought Leader in Data and AI, author FairTech, Nina Michahelles, Director Large Customer Sales, Google, Jason Feifer, Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur magazine in USA, , Stephan Scheuer, Silicon Valley Correspondent at Handelsblatt, Christian Reincke, Head of People Development at EDAG and many, many more.

More information about i40.de can be found here:

Cybersecurity 4.0 – Online Training

For more information on our i40 Masterclass on how to combine family and career:

For more information on the Masterclass about additive manufacturing:

Our Digikompetenz Podcast