DHL 2015 Annual Report Download - page 103

Deutsche Post  Group —  Annual Report
Opportunities and risks arising from information technology
e security of our information systems is particularly important to us. e goal is to
ensure continuous  system operation and prevent unauthorised access to our systems
and databases. To full this responsibility, the Information Security Committee, a
sub-committee of the  Board, has dened guidelines and procedures based upon
, the international standard for information security management. In addition,
Group Risk Management,  Audit, Data Protection and Corporate Security monitor
and assess  risk on an on-going basis. For our processes to run smoothly at all times,
the essential  systems must be constantly available. We ensure this by designing our
systems to protect against complete system failures. In addition to third-party data
centres, we operate central data centres in the Czech Republic, Malaysia and the United
States. Our systems are thus geographically separate and can be replicated locally.
We limit access to our systems and data such that employees can only access the
data they need to perform their duties. All systems and data are backed up on a regular
basis, and critical data are replicated across data centres.
All of our soware is updated regularly to address bugs, close potential gaps in
security and increase functionality. We employ a patch management process – a dened
procedure for managing soware upgrades – to control risks that could arise from
outdated soware or from soware upgrades.
Based upon the measures described above, we estimate the probability of experi-
encing a signicant  incident with serious consequences as highly unlikely.
Our - communication platform was re-certied in  by the German Federal
Oce for Information Security in accordance with its standards for -Grundschutz
following completion of the annual audit. e - platform was also re- certied by
 Informationstechnik GmbH pursuant to trusted site privacy criteria.
Opportunities and risks arising from human resources
It is essential for us to have qualied and motivated employees in order to achieve long-
term success. However, demographic change could lead to a decrease in the pool of
available talent in various markets. We respond to this risk with various measures
designed to motivate and engage our employees as well as promote their development.
We use Strategic Resource Management to address the risks arising from an aging
population and the capacity shortages that may result from changing demographic and
social structures. e experience gained is used to continuously improve strategic
resource management as an analysis and planning instrument. e Generations Pact agreed
upon with trade unions in Germany also contributes to taking advantage of the career
experience of employees for as long as possible, whilst at the same time oering young
people long-term career perspectives.
Possible increases in both chronic and acute diseases pose another risk to sustaining
our business operations. We address this risk with a systematic health management pro-
gramme and cross-divisional co-operation.
Employees, page 
Health and safety, page 
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Group Management Report — OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS — Categories of opportunities and risks