This is because security underpins trust, and new technologies depend on trust for acceptance, Stefan Jähnichen, president of the GI told the ISSE 2010 security conference in Berlin.
"If security is challenged, it is difficult to establish or re-establish trust", he said.
The future of economic and social developments that have been shaken up and reshaped by the internet, said Jähnichen, depends on trust.
But, it is also impossible to design and implement complex systems that are free of all faults and, therefore, it is necessary to have effective technologies to limit the consequences of failure, he said.
For this reason, added Jähnichen, security technologies have become an important and fast growing market in the internet era.
Success, however, depends on co-operation between science, industry, politics and government, he said.
This story was first published by Computer Weekly