The digitization of processes in all industries and in administration is progressing with great momentum. New opportunities, new processes, new dependencies, new risks are constantly emerging. Old things are becoming obsolete and the dynamic “state of the art” is becoming increasingly relevant and challenging.
This has led and continues to lead to the demand that not only IT user knowledge should be taught as early as elementary school. So-called “computational skills” – understanding and even developing algorithms and data structures – should also be integrated into the curriculum in compulsory and secondary schools. We find this worthy of support and relevant for the best possible “digital maturity” in the age of the “cyber sovereignty” to be strived for.
The question can be analyzed with an analogy from the medical field: Is anyone with elementary school knowledge of the human body, possible disease patterns and treatment methods competent to perform medical diagnoses and treatments? Here the answer is clearly: No. But everyone should be able to help themselves in trivial cases such as a cold or the flu and – especially important – have enough knowledge to be able to distinguish between trivial cases and more serious symptoms within the framework of a basic understanding.
Fig 1. Secure Software Development Lifecycle
Fig.2 Security Development Lifecycle (SOL)
Back to the IT world: If we want a secure and reliable IT infrastructure, then we probably have to leave the non-trivial work to the well-trained or more highly specialized experts here as well, professionals with greater methodological and best-practice-based experience. So the question posed at the beginning must also be answered in the negative.
But this immediately raises follow-up questions: How can we distinguish between trivial and non-trivial in digitization issues?
Does Switzerland have an adequate education and, above all, continuing education and training system for IT experts?
