Blockchain ist derzeit in aller Munde. Die Technologie, die oft auch präziser als ‚Distributed Ledger‘-Verfahren bezeichnet wird, soll großes ‚Disruptionspotenzial‘ besitzen. Immer noch sprechen wir jedoch in diesem Kontext vorwiegend über Kryptowährungen, wie Bitcoin, die auf diese Ansätze maßgeblich zurückgreifen sowie deren Probleme und davon ausgehende Gefahren. Dazu zählen insbesondere die teils erheblichen Kursschwankungen an den Märkten, die zahlreichen Betrugsversuche sowie der extrem hohe Energieverbrauch, der mit dem Mining-Prozess einhergeht.

Automotive Ethernet (AE) is becoming more and more relevant to the automotive industry due to its support of emerging in-car applications, which have high bandwidth demands and stringent requirements in terms of latency and time synchronization. One of the standards under consideration for AE is IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB)/Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) that provides deterministic data link layer and bounded latency to real-time traffic classes. So far, this protocol stack has only been evaluated using either simulations or proprietary and expensive platforms. In this paper, we design a real testbed system for AE using general-purpose single-board computers and conduct experiments to assess the real-time performance of an open-source AVB/TSN implementation. Our preliminary results show that even under heavy load, AVB/TSN can fulfil the latency requirements of AE while keeping a constant latency variation.

Internet of Things (IoT) research investigates the idea that a wide array of devices can be interconnected to enable these entities to be located, identified, and even operated without any human interference. This technology is universally seen as transforming the manufacturing and services sectors. Questions about whether-and, if yes, how-the IoT impacts on business networks in Business-to-Business (B2B) relationships have not yet been settled, due to a lack of empirical marketing-focused studies. Is "connectivity for anything" perceived as an additional, co-created value in manufacturer-buyer relationships? Based on research data from B2B and business-to-government (B2G) customers stemming from two manufacturers active in different business fields as well as several German plant operators and their suppliers, our study addresses the following questions: 1. Considering manufacturers and professional buying organizations, do the disruptive challenges of the digital age lead to relationship asymmetries in customer-supplier relationships? 2. With reference to disruption management-is there a difference in the acceptance of digital services between different B2B and B2G groups (e.g., manufacturing industry, process industry)? 3. In customer acceptance of IoT, does it make a difference in customer attitude towards IoT-related services if the product, plant or service is standardized or customized to requirements? 4. The goal is to communicate using the preferred channels of the customers. Considering that the volume of information has risen-how can commercial digital communication build trust? We finally propose a four-step approach to more successfully implement IoT-related projects.

Künstliche Intelligenz und Blockchain sind derzeit womöglich die am intensivsten diskutierten Themen im Bereich der digitalen Transformation. Beiden wird immer wieder erhebliches Potenzial zugeschrieben, die Spielregeln auf den Märkten aufzubrechen und zu disruptieren. Unweigerlich stellt sich dann die Frage, jenseits allen Buzz-Word-Bingos, ob sich hierbei dann nicht Szenarien ergeben, die einen kombinierten Einsatz nahelegen. Diese finden sich vor allem im Bereich des (Industrial) Internet of Things sowie der dezentralen Koordinierung autonomer intelligenter Systeme.

Durch ein verändertes Kundenverhalten wird die so genannte „Darkside of the Customer Journey“ immer umfangreicher und das Unternehmen verliert die Hoheit über den Vertriebsprozess. Diese Entwicklung kann nur durch den gezielten Einsatz digitaler Tools sowie einem exzellenten Market-Intelligence- System rückgängig gemacht werden.

Fluch oder Segen? Welche Entwicklungen sich mit der Digitalisierung durchsetzen werden, ist schwer vorhersehbar. Aber die digitalen Transformationsprozesse werden vor der Sozialwirtschaft nicht haltmachen. Daher sollte sie die Chancen nutzen und Veränderungen aktiv gestalten.

Android's accessibility API was designed to assist users with disabilities, or preoccupied users unable to interact with a device, e.g., while driving a car. Nowadays, many Android apps rely on the accessibility API for other purposes, including password managers but also malware. From a security perspective, the accessibility API is precarious as it undermines an otherwise strong principle of sandboxing in Android that separates apps. By means of an accessibility service, apps can interact with the UI elements of another app, including reading from its screen and writing to its text fields. As a consequence, design shortcomings in the accessibility API and other UI features such as overlays have grave security implications. We reveal flaws in the accessibility design of Android allowing information leakages and denial of service attacks against fully patched systems. With an enabled accessibility service, we are able to sniff sensitive data from apps, including the password of Android's own lock screen. To evaluate the effectiveness of our attacks against third-party apps, we examined the 1100 most downloaded apps from Google Play and found 99.25 % of them to be vulnerable. Although app-level protection measures against these attacks can be implemented, e.g., to prevent information leakage through password fields, the number of affected apps proves that these kind of vulnerabilities must be tackled by Google rather than app developers. From December 2017 to March 2018, we submitted seven bug reports to Google, from which three have been marked as won't fix while four are progressed but ranked with either low severity or no security bulletin class. We conclude our paper with a list of best practices for app-level protections for the time those bugs remain unfixed by Google.

Economically feasible lightweight design represents an important objective for large-scale automobile production. According to the background of a high degree of lightweight design with sufficient cost-effectiveness, hybrid multi-material composites are increasingly getting into the focus of interest. In this case, composites and metals are combined to produce integrated components with optimized properties. These materials allow the creation of customized components. In addition, the component costs can be reduced by component-integrated functions. This reduction also allows a downstream of various process steps. [1] Due to their high lightweight potential, leaf springs offer a good opportunity for weight reduction in the vehicle. In heavy and light commercial vehicles, weight savings of up to 75% can be achieved for the leaf spring through the use of composites in comparison to conventional spring steel …

Blockchain-Technologie kann nicht auf den Märkten für die dezentrale Transaktionsabwicklung genutzt werden. Auch der Rückgriff als Gestaltungselement im politischen System wird diskutiert. Damit verbunden ist aber auch eine Ideologisierung politischer Prozesse.

Diskussionen über Blockchain kreisen oft um deren „disruptives Potenzial“ im Bereich der Transaktionsabwicklung etwa bei Kryptowährungen wie Bitcoin oder bei Smart Contracts. Jenseits dieser ökonomischen Belange könnte die Technologie jedoch auch die politischen und gesellschaftlichen Gegebenheiten auf den Kopf stellen – im Wege einer „Politischen Disruption“.