Siemens, and the 11 Charter of Trust members, today welcomed Cisco, Dell Technologies, Total and TÜV SÜD AG to its global cybersecurity initiative during National Infrastructure Week in Washington, D.C.

Siemens President and CEO, Joe Kaeser, was joined at a signing ceremony by Michael Timmeny, SVP & Chief Government Strategy Officer of Cisco; Michael Dell, Chairman & CEO, Dell Technologies; Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman & CEO, Total, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Stepken, Chairman of the Board of Management of TÜV SÜD AG.

With the theme “Building our future, building our infrastructure,” the 6th annual National Infrastructure Week is a week of events and advocacy to elevate infrastructure as a critical issue impacting America’s economy, society, security and future.

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here, and it’s not just about technology,” says Kaeser. “A digital transformation is taking place across industry and society, where physical and virtual worlds are integrated through new technologies like the digital twin, data analytics, 3D printing and artificial intelligence. Today, data is more relevant than ever, but the challenge arises as to securing this data, and the infrastructure that creates it. The Charter of Trust global cybersecurity initiative is designed to prevent harm to people, businesses, infrastructure and assets by establishing a reliable basis upon which the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be built on,” Kaeser added.

The Charter of Trust represents an unprecedented cybersecurity initiative based on ten principles. The Charter of Trust was announced at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in February, and signed by a group of founding companies, including Airbus, Allianz, Daimler Group, IBM, MSC, NXP, SGS and Deutsche Telekom. During CERAWeek in March, The AES Corporation, Enel and Atos joined the group. The new Charter of Trust members include Cisco, a worldwide technology leader based in San Jose, CA; Dell Technologies (Dell, Dell EMC, Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream and VMware), which provides essential infrastructure from the edge to the core to the cloud; Total, a French multinational integrated oil and gas company and one of the seven “supermajor” oil companies in the world, and Munich-based TÜV SÜD AG, a leader in testing, inspection and certification services.

“Trust is essential, and for nearly a decade the Cisco Security and Trust Office has operationalized many similar principles as those found in the Charter of Trust,” says John N. Stewart, SVP and Chief Security and Trust Officer, Cisco. “Our company applies strong protections for our customers, employees and stakeholders by embedding security into our solutions, operations and across our value chain, developing and following open global standards, and continuously striving to earn and maintain our customers’ trust every day. In joining the Charter of Trust, we feel that working together with industry peers will accelerate these goals and make the world a better place.”

Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO, Dell Technologies added: “By joining the Charter of Trust and partnering with other leading technology providers, we can help realize the promise of technology innovation to drive human progress while protecting people and securing their data in this digitally connected world.”

“Cyber security is a paramount topic for companies, as cyber-attacks are steadily increasing,” says Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO, Total. “The consequences of a successful cyber-attack can be extremely harmful: it can impact the safety of our staff and facilities, degrade our finances, reveal the private data of our customers or even damage our reputation. By the nature of its industrial activities and the issues at stake, a company like Total is more than willing to sign The Charter of Trust, whose principles make it an unprecedented cybersecurity initiative.”

“All evolving business ecosystems come along with more digital interaction, deeper value chain integration and ever more interdependencies between participants,” says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Stepken, Chairman of the Board of Management, TÜV SÜD AG. “Cyber security will be crucial to making business reliable, sustainable and secure. We are pleased to be a member of the Charter of Trust and contribute to this initiative by protecting critical systems and large volumes of sensitive data for our customers’ business continuity, building trust in the digital world of today and tomorrow.”

The Charter of Trust members are taking the next steps to define the organization’s structure and take action upon its ten principles, including topics such as ownership of cybersecurity, supply chains, security by default, user-centricity, co-creation, workforce training, certification for critical infrastructure, transparency and response, regulatory framework and joint initiatives.

As a highlight to National Infrastructure Week, cybersecurity experts from industry, government, academia and research gathered together today for a thought leadership event hosted by Bloomberg titled “The Future of Cybersecurity: Risk and Resiliency Across Critical Infrastructure.” Leaders discussed how technology, workforce education and investment are needed to secure tomorrow’s future.