An employee walks with a customer inside a Volkswagen automobile showroom in Berlin. Volkswagen has teamed with insurer Allianz, medical company Bayer and chemicals producer BASF to sell IT security services to firms in Germany starting next year, the companies said yesterday.

Bloomberg/Berlin

The German car giant that gave the world the Beetle may soon help you fend off cybercriminals.
Volkswagen teamed with insurer Allianz, medical company Bayer and chemicals producer BASF to sell information-technology security services to firms in Germany starting next year, the companies said in a statement yesterday. They plan to set up a Berlin-based venture called DCSO Deutsche Cyber-Sicherheitsorganisation, with a 25% stake each. No investment value was given.
“Attacks on corporate IT systems are increasing, and it’s of interest to Germany’s economy to be prepared,” Lasse Osteneck, a spokesman for Volkswagen, said by phone.
“Security is non-negotiable and that’s also true for Volkswagen. We believe the new company is closing a market gap.”
IT security is becoming more important for carmakers such as Volkswagen, with chief executive officer Martin Winterkorn saying this week he seeks to reinvent Europe’s biggest automaker into one providing “smartphones on wheels.”
Hackers landed a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles jeep in a ditch in July and sparked a recall of about 1.4mn cars. By 2020, about 90% of new vehicles in western Europe will be connected to the Internet, compared with about one-third next year, according to Hitachi.
German companies lose about €51bn ($58bn) a year due to cybercrime, with the car, chemicals and pharmaceutical industries most affected, according to the country’s Bitkom technology-industry association.
The government is eager to improve Germany’s IT defenses as part of its “digital agenda,” which is also aimed at blanketing the country with high-speed Internet by 2018 and backing the digitalisation of industry.
DCSO will cooperate with Germany’s Interior Ministry and the Federal Office for Information Security, and is open to additional partners, Osteneck said.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen plans to propose chief financial officer Hans Dieter Poetsch as its new chairman, opting for a consensual figure to move beyond a power struggle that led to the abrupt departure of former Chairman Ferdinand Piech.
Poetsch will be proposed for the post at an extraordinary shareholder meeting in November, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said in a statement. VW’s supervisory board presidium voted to back the proposal from Porsche Automobil Holding, which is controlled by the Porsche-Piech family and owns the majority of Volkswagen’s common stock.
Poetsch’s appointment as chairman would fill the vacancy left by Piech’s departure in April after he tried and failed to oust chief executive officer Martin Winterkorn. While Poetsch, who has been VW’s CFO since 2003, is seen as a safe choice and won’t polarise the power players at Volkswagen, he would shift from day-to-day management to an oversight role without a break.
Volkswagen said a successor for Poetsch as CFO will be decided soon. Rupert Stadler, head of the Audi brand, could be a candidate for that post.