The security of installations, especially supply and traffic infrastructures, will become more and more of a locational advantage for countries like Germany, who have a very strong security industry. "Public safety and the protection of their property is something that is self-evident for companies when they decide to invest. Locations that, for example, can guarantee a stable supply of energy, telecommunication services ans traffic services will have strong competitive advantages", explained Dr. Heinrich-Gerhard Lochte from the German Ministry of economic affairs and technology (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie, BMWi) during the annual press conference of the Central Associationof the German Electrical and Electronics Industry (Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e.V., ZVEI). "Investments in the securing of IT structures, central services and processes reduce the risk of default, create a certain image and thus improve the market position of companies", as Lochte stated.

Last fall, the BMWi has started an industry political initiative for the 'future market civil security', which should help the German security industry to further increase their global market share.

As the ZVEI stated, the global market for civil security technology and services has a total volume of 100 Billion Euro p.a. and is growing by as much as 5% each year. The BMWi sees Germany as prepared for the increasing global demand. The research institutions as well as the industry have accuired a global leadership with their technologies.

A submarket of the security industry, in which a lot of research is done at the moment, and that has global significance, is the development of solutions for the early detection and defense against terrorist attacks. In such solutions, persons or objects can be detected automatically by thermal imaging cameras, when they cross a virtual line in the video surveillance installation. In this case, the information is supplied by several sensors, for example for motion detection but can be delivered by underwater-sensors or radar systems as well. The appropriate reaction then can be led even from a remote control center.

The application possibilities of systems like that are various, especially in a time when there are more and more asymetric confrontations. All in all, the pattern of the terrorist attack on the german military camp in Kunduz, Afghansitan was not so different from one that can be used to attack a civil train station. Applications for those new security systems could be airports, seaports, power plants, oil refineries or medical supply centers. On this account, they are as important for law enforcement agencies, border guards or private security services as they are in military applications. [www.zvei.org]