DHL 2013 Annual Report Download - page 99

Deutsche Post and  are in competition with other providers. Such competition
can signicantly impact our customer base as well as the levels of prices and margins
in our markets. In the mail and logistics business, the key factors for success are quality,
customer condence and competitive prices. anks to our high quality along with
the cost savings we have generated in recent years, we believe that we shall be able to
withstand the competition and keep any negative eects at a low level.
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 standards, procedures and guidelines
based on  , the international standard for information security management.
In addition, Group Risk Management,  Audit, Data Protection and Corporate Security
monitor and assess  risk on an ongoing 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 two central data centres in the Czech Republic and Malaysia. Our
systems are thus geographically separate and can be replicated locally.
We limit access to our systems and data. Employees can only access the data they
need to do their job. 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 out-
dated soware or from soware upgrades.
Due to the measures described above, we estimate the probability of a signicant
and momentous incident in the  sector as being very unlikely so that the risk has an
overall low relevance.
Our - products – rst and foremost -Postbrief – come with our pledge of
security and data protection. In , the associated platform was re-certied by the
German Federal Oce for Information Security in accordance with its standards for
-Grundschutz. In addition, it was again certied by  Informationstechnik GmbH
as compliant with the legal standards and applicable data protection regulations pursu-
ant to the criteria for trusted site privacy.
Risks arising from internal processes
Logistics services are generally provided in bulk and require a complex opera-
tional infrastructure with high quality standards. To consistently guarantee reliability
and punctual delivery, processes must be organised so as to proceed smoothly with
no technical or personnel-related glitches. Any weaknesses with regard to posting and
collection, sorting, transport, warehousing or delivery could seriously compromise
our competitive position. We therefore adapt all processes to current circumstances as
needed. We also take preventive measures to guard against disruptions or malfunctions
in our operational processes. Should disruptions nonetheless occur, contingency plans
will come into eect to minimise the consequences. Some risks from business inter-
ruptions are also reduced by our insurance policies.
95Deutsche Post DHL 2013 Annual Report
Opportunities and Risks
Risks
Group Management Report