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
Excursion to the Dreiländermuseum Lörrach
On Thursday, November 20th, the Competence Center Digital Trust team visited the Dreiländermuseum Lörrach for an excursion combining cultural insight with project-related exchange.Upon arrival, the team was welcomed by Museum Director, Jan Merk, who offered a short, exclusive guided tour of the museum. The tour provided valuable…
Swiss National Future Day 2025: Strengthening Digital Responsibility Together 🚀
On November 13th 2025 Hermann Grieder and Janine Jäger from the Digital Trust Competence Center welcomed 20 girls to our “Cyberhero Transformation” workshop at FHNW School of Business. The day was dedicated to one central theme: digital responsibility.Children today encounter the online world at an early age…
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…
AI Security & Governance at FHNW
As part of the seminar “The Trust Factor: AI for Business Transformation”, Dr. Swantje Westpfahl welcomed guest lecturer Nils Lamb, founder of Askora, for an engaging session that explored the theoretical foundations and practical applications of trust and security in artificial intelligence systems. The lecture, held on November 6th, is part…
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…