Digital Trust Competence Center
We are an academic partner for managers, technology and industry experts as well as researchers aiming to share knowledge and best practices.
“Digital Trust means keeping our digital world safe and honest. This means ensuring secure online interactions by protecting data (cybersecurity), respecting privacy (data privacy), safely using new tech (emerging technologies), acting ethically (ethics and governance), managing risks, and following rules (compliance and audit).” – Competence Center Digital Trust
- Digital Trust is for us the “trustworthiness of digital technologies and data.
- Digital Trust is the basis of the digital economy ̶ regardless of which technologies or applications are involved and which data are processed. In the end, it is about treating digital data in a trustworthy manner so that we as private individuals or business partners can expect the highest possible level of protection and companies can (and want to) guarantee this.
- Digital Trust is important for Switzerland as a competitive location and for Europe! We use the proven concepts from governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) as well as from auditing as foundation.
Digital Trust is divided into five main areas for us:
- Cybersecurity & Resilience – the art of protecting networks, devices and data from unauthorized access or criminal use, and achieving resilience.
- Data protection – the strive towards protecting personal data from improper processing and securing the right to informational self-determination.
- Emerging Technologies – Emerging Technologies that have an impact on cybersecurity and Data protection (such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum computers)
- Digital Responsibility & Ethics – transforms ethics from aspiration into action, making digital trust both principled and verifiable.
- Governance – as a constitutive element of an organization’s value creation – by means of continuous overall consideration of all processes and responsibilities to manage risks effectively and efficiently.
Latest Posts
Best Paper Award at the 22nd International Conference on Applied Computing
Congratulations to Master’s student Luca Knecht, and to our colleagues Prof. Dr. Petra Maria Asprion and Prof. Dr. Bettina Schneider from the Competence Center Digital Trust!The trio received the Best Paper Award at the 22nd International Conference on Applied Computing (AC 2025), held in Porto, Portugal.Their…
Swiss Digital Leadership Forum 2025
On October 28th, the Competence Center Digital Trust, together with our partners from Swiss-African Cybersecurity Community, participated in the Swiss Digital Leadership Forum 2025 – Strengthening Digital Leadership (DLF), organized by the FHNW School of Business in cooperation with Advatera. The one-day event brought together an interdisciplinary…
Contributions at the IIAS Next Gen @EFK – After-work Event with Impulses from Science
On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, Frank Grimberg represented the FHNW School of Business at the IIAS Next Gen @EFK – After-work event with impulses from science, held in Bern.The three-hour event, hosted by the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) brought together more than 30 participants, including Chief…
Swantje Westpfahl Moderates Panel at the World Economic Forum in Dubai
Dubai, October 2025 – The Competence Centre Digital Trust is proud to celebrate Swantje Westpfahl, who recently contributed to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity 2025 in Dubai. As part of this global gathering of over 150 leading experts, policymakers, and…
Strengthening International Collaboration in Responsible Blockchain Innovation
The Africa Center of Excellence in Blockchain Research (ACEBR) aims to position Africa as a global leader in responsible blockchain innovation through inclusive research, policy development, and technology adoption.As part of this vision, ACEBR runs the Young Researchers’ Community Program, which offers mentoring and professional guidance for highly motivated…