Stuttgart, Germany, June 27, 2023 — The High-Performance Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart (HLRS) is pleased to announce that it has completed certification under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001 standard for information security management. ISO certification confirms that HLRS has implemented a comprehensive information security management system (ISMS), which details technical and organizational measures for identifying security threats to stored data, and for preventing and reacting to attacks. This includes protecting high-performance computing systems from unauthorized access and usage.
Jun 27, 2023
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“Achieving ISO 27001 certification confirms via an external audit that HLRS follows industry-standard best practices for information security management,” said HLRS Director Prof. Michael Resch. “It should give users of our high-performance computing systems the confidence that their data are well protected, and should reassure our funders that our supercomputer and other systems are not used in inappropriate ways. Finally, this certification will ensure that HLRS updates and improves its security measures on a continual basis to address new threats that might arise in the future.”
The scope of HLRS’s information security management system contains the provision of computing time on its high-performance computers as well as the supporting processes for operating the production environment. It establishes policies that address potential security risks at all levels of the organization, covering hardware, software, facilities, and personnel. It also defines procedures for identifying and reacting to information security breaches in an appropriate manner. In addition, the ISMS establishes clear roles and responsibilities for managing information security. It provides a framework for tracking the effectiveness of security measures and requires that the entire HLRS staff be informed of and comply with information security policies. Moreover, the ISMS sets guidelines for HLRS’s product suppliers and their subcontractors, ensuring that they adhere to stringent secrecy and procedural requirements.
Certification under ISO 27001 complements steps that HLRS took prior to 2021, when it completed a data security assessment in accordance with the TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange) framework.
TÜV NORD CERT GmbH performed HLRS’s ISO 27001 audit, which consisted of a thorough documentation review, a site visit, and an examination of the security processes that the center has implemented.
The High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) was established in 1996 as Germany’s first national high-performance computing center. As a research institution affiliated with the University of Stuttgart and a founding member of the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing, HLRS provides computing resources for academic users and industry. HLRS operates state of the art high-performance computing systems and provides advanced training in HPC programming and simulation. The center also conducts research to address key problems facing the future of supercomputing. Among HLRS's areas of expertise are parallel programming, numerical methods for HPC, visualization, cloud computing, high-performance data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Users of HLRS computing systems are active across a wide range of disciplines, with an emphasis on computational engineering and applied science.
Sophia Honisch, High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart. Tel.: +49 711 685-68038. sophia.honisch@hlrs.de
